{"id":517894,"date":"2026-06-25T15:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517894\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T15:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:08:13","slug":"brilliant-ballincollig-hurlers-make-history-with-first-feile-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517894\/","title":{"rendered":"Brilliant Ballincollig hurlers make history with first F\u00e9ile success"},"content":{"rendered":"

The original Christy Ring Cup, awarded to the winners of the F\u00e9ile na nGael Division 1 hurling title, had been claimed by four Cork clubs.<\/p>\n

Glen Rovers \u2013 fittingly \u2013 St Finbarr\u2019s, Sarsfields and Na Piarsaigh had all proven themselves to be the best nationally at U14 level (now U15). However, the latter\u2019s 2006 remained Cork\u2019s most recent, until last weekend in Portlaoise, when Ballincollig became the newest name on the roll of honour.<\/p>\n

Having topped a group that featured Lismore and Naas, Ballincollig qualified for the semi-finals, where they overcame Kilmacud Crokes, before earning ultimate glory as they beat Galway\u2019s Michael Cusacks in the final.<\/p>\n

Team manager Denis Twomey praised a massive collective effort that brought about such an achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started U5s and, definitely, as they came up along, playing tournaments and things, you could see there was a good bunch there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe won U12, U13 and U14 P1 hurling counties and people were saying we should target F\u00e9ile, which still has a huge name.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won the Cork F\u00e9ile<\/a> and I\u2019ve a buddy from the Glen, who now lives in Sars, and he said, to me, \u2018Good teams win Cork F\u00e9ile, great teams win national F\u00e9ile!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until we were in the stand in O\u2019Moore Park after winning it and it was mentioned in the presentation speech that no Cork team had won it in 20 years that we realised how big an achievement it was.<\/p>\n

\n For us as a club, it\u2019s a big achievement.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

“You see all the names on this national trophy \u2013 D\u00farlas \u00d3g, James Stephens, Clarinbridge, Oranmore \u2013 you’re in with elite hurling clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ballincolig'sBallincolig’s Ollie Power, scorer of the winning points in the final, celebrating with his father Ed after the victory. Picture: Thomas Flinkow\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

At half-time in the final, it was 0-3 each; when their opponents scored a goal in the second period, it put them 1-5 to 0-7 in front. It was the first time Ballincollig had trailed all day but Dawid Jozefowski levelled to send the game to extra time.<\/p>\n

Another Cusacks goal gave them the advantage again but points from Faol\u00e1n O\u2019Leary and Will Twomey tied the match again before Ollie Power became the hero as he fired over two late scores to confirm the win.<\/p>\n

But for a narrow defeat to Glanmire in Cork F\u00e9ile football final, Ballincollig might have been on course for a double \u2013 managing commitment to two codes (and more) is not easy but it can be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a dual perspective, it can be difficult to keep everything going and it took a monumental effort by all of the coaches to push this crowd through,\u201d Twomey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lads with the Cork City and Cobh Ramblers academies, they\u2019re good sporting lads, and it was a case of trying to keep them hurling and keep them at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of co-operation between everyone to keep the show going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ballincollig'sBallincollig’s Tommy Fitzgerald makes a good catch in the final against Michael Cusacks. Picture: Thomas Flinkow\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Those efforts will continue as the club look to make the most of what is a plentiful time on the hurling front \u2013 but of course it is important that something like this is recognised and celebrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won the P1 U14 hurling county last year and the last time we won that grade, it wasn\u2019t even called P1 back then \u2013 it was the team I was on myself, back in 1988,\u201d Twomey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the Lismores and the Michael Cusacks and the small clubs up there had massive village support, but we also had a massive support up there, outside of parents and grandparents \u2013 there were lots of club members there.
\u201cTom Dorgan, the club chairman, sent me an unbelievable text off him the morning after it, about what an achievement it was \u2013 he basically said that there are two premier club competitions to win, the senior All-Ireland club and the F\u00e9ile. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re just delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Wall and Denis Twomey with Ballincollig U15 F\u00e9ile hurlers John Kearney, Dawid Jozefowski, Sam Iwasuk and Ethan Moore ahead of the All-Ireland F\u00e9ile finals in Portlaoise. Picture courtesy of Cork Airport<\/p>\n

Ballincollig U15 hurling squad:\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Kearney (captain), James Archibold, Kerry McSweeney, Tommy Fitzgerald, Ronan O\u2019Gorman, Charlie Hannigan, Ronan Dineen, Faol\u00e1n O\u2019Leary, Louis Healy, Matthew Harrington, Will Twomey, Dan O\u2019Sullivan, Alex O\u2019Driscoll, Dawid Jozefowski, Ollie Power, Fionn Barker, Ethan Moore, Cillian O\u2019Donovan, Sam Iwaszuk, Tadhg Kelleher, Rory Lynch, Eoin Sexton, Jamie Murphy.<\/p>\n

Management:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Denis Twomey (manager), Dave Hannigan, Eoin Dineen, Donal O\u2019Sullivan, Colm Barker, Eric Moore, John Murphy, Derek Beale (coach), Nathan Wall (goalkeeping coach).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The original Christy Ring Cup, awarded to the winners of the F\u00e9ile na nGael Division 1 hurling title,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-517894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}