Offaly Senior Hurling Championship - Profiles for all ten teams fighting for the Sean Robbins Cup

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Ballinamere

Manager – Niall Rigney;

Selectors – Pat Cleary, Stephen Ravenhill, Diarmuid Cahill;

Captain – Ciaran Burke;

Retirements/Long term injuries – Gerry Spollen;

New players – Niall Kelly

Last year – Beaten by Shinrone in the semi-final;

Star player – Brian Duignan;

Key players – Ciaran Burke, Dan Bourke, Dan Ravenhill;

Prospects – Youth is on the side of Ballinamere but the clock ticks very quickly and they do need to make further progress this year. Ballinamere got one monkey off their back by making the semi-finals last year and the target is a final this year. Outside of Kilcormac-Killoughey, they have the most talented hurlers in the county. Mark Troy, Ciaran Burke, Ross Ravenhill, Brian Duignan and Dan Bourke are all established Offaly senior hurlers while Sam Bourke and Dan Ravenhill played in the Joe McDonagh Cup campaign this year. With this talent at their disposal, Ballinamere should be second favourites behind Kilcormac-Killoughey but they still have a lot to prove. They haven't progressed quite as much as they could have and there are questions about them. Ballinamere's problem is that they have ten or so hurlers as good as anyone but it is the next five that often determine the winners. Dan Bourke and Dan Ravenhill should be huge for them this year but as a unit, there will be huge scrutiny on Ballinamere this year, both internally and externally. They will continue to push, they will stay trying to do the right thing and some day, this could lead them to the promised land. They certainly have the hurlers to win the Robbins Cup but K-K are ahead of them at the moment – their first priority is to qualify and that is not guaranteed. Ballinamere are capable of beating anyone but they are also capable of bad days. We just have to wait and see with them but they are genuine contenders.