PREVIEW: Clane tackle Louth champs in Leinster Junior Championship

Kildare Senior ‘B’ Hurling Champions Clane get their provincial adventure underway on Saturday, November 8 following their superb county success.

Clane travel to Pairc Naomh Brid, Dowdallshill, situated just outside Dundalk, to face Louth Senior Hurling Champions Naomh Moninne in a 1:30pm throw-in.

Louth hurling is of course a very particular case with only three senior clubs in the county, but the team to emerge from that admittedly small group have given Kildare’s Senior ‘B’ winners trouble in the past with Leixlip far from having things all their own way when they faced St Fechins in 2023.

The 2025 Kildare champions came out the right side of the aforementioned Leixlip in an exceptional county final encounter by 1-18 to 1-17.

Despite the small sample size, Naomh Moninne have shown resilience already this year and beat St Fechins in 3-15 to 3-14 in a similarly thrilling county final against a side that had beaten them by seven points just a month prior.

Thanks to the peculiar quirks of the Louth hurling season, Senior champions Naomh Moninne most recently, on September 27, beat St Fechins to capture the Louth Senior league title to complete a league and Championship double with a 3-21 to 2-10 win.

If the variety of results between the three Louth clubs were not indicative enough of anyone being able to beat anyone, Naomh Moninne’s winning of a league and Championship double is the first time any side has done so in the county since 1998.
With all that said, the man that Clane will have to watch out for is Conor Murphy, who top-scored with 3-3 in their league final success.

The unpredictable nature of Louth hurling is fascinating but headed into this fixture, the stiffness and variety of competition that Clane have been exposed to should serve them well.

Group stages
In the group stages, Clane drew with Naas and lost to Leixlip before toppling both in their respective Semi-Final and Final meetings.

They have been really tested prior to this Leinster opener and should be in a great place to succeed going in after their dramatic county final victory on September 28 whey they defeated Leixlip, after being just a point ahead at the break went on to win with that one point still separating the sides.

It was an excellent top class game of hurling and if Clane can reproduce that form they should be there or thereabout in Saturday's clash.

They will look to the experienced Mark Doyle in goals (understudy to Paddy McKenna in the county set-up), Dan Colbert at no. 3; Sean Shanahan; county keeper Paddy McKenna is their main scoring threat, knocking up 1-7 in the final against Leixlip, while getting good assistance from Caolan Smith, Shane Henry and Hugh Muldoon.

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