Tipperary SHC Power Rankings After Round 3: The Group Stage Is Over, Now the Real Championship Begins
Twenty-four games.
Seventy-two goals.
More than 1,200 point-equivalents scored.
Four unbeaten group winners.
Six teams already safely into the county quarter-finals.
Four more preparing for preliminary quarter-finals.
Three clubs definitely heading towards the relegation series, with a fourth still carrying the extraordinary possibility of being involved at both ends of the championship.
And after three rounds of the FBD Insurance Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship, we finally have enough evidence to separate reputation from reality.
The group stage is over.
Now it gets serious.
Round 1 gave us shocks.
Round 2 gave us trends.
Round 3 gave us answers.
Some of those answers were emphatic.
Thurles Sarsfields finished three from three.
JK Brackens finished three from three.
Moycarkey-Borris finished three from three after beating all three divisional champions in their group.
Another unbeaten side finished with a championship-leading 97 point-equivalents from three games, an extraordinary average of 32.33 every sixty minutes.
At the other end, some seasons have ended.
Others are hanging by a thread.
And the defending champions, who sat at No.1 in these rankings after Round 1 despite an opening defeat, have taken one of the strangest routes imaginable into the knockout championship.
That is the point of power rankings.
They are not simply the group tables rewritten from top to bottom.
If they were, there would be no point doing them.
They are an attempt to measure the entire picture.
Results.
Form.
Scoring power.
Defensive performance.
Scores from play.
Reliance on placed balls.
Goal threat.
Personnel.
Injuries.
Momentum.
Championship pedigree.
And, now that the group stage is finished, the route that remains.
An eliminated team can still rank above a surviving one if its three-game body of work was stronger. A team entering a preliminary quarter-final can still rank highly if the underlying evidence says it remains a genuine championship threat.
This is a snapshot of where all 16 senior teams stand after three county championship rounds.
And the numbers are beginning to tell us some fascinating things.
The championship in numbers
The most explosive attack in the competition has scored 97 point-equivalents.
JK Brackens are next on 90.
Kiladangan have 89.
Thurles Sarsfields have 85.
Nenagh Éire Óg have 82.
At the other end, Toomevara managed only 59, Upperchurch-Drombane 64, while Loughmore-Castleiney and CJK Mullinahone both finished the group stage on 69.
But raw scoring only tells half the story.
Moycarkey-Borris have conceded just 60 point-equivalents in three games.
That is an average concession of exactly 20.
Nobody else is particularly close.
Thurles Sarsfields and Holycross/Ballycahill have both conceded 68.
JK Brackens and Nenagh Éire Óg have conceded 70.
Then consider the opposite extreme.
Roscrea have conceded 88.
The championship’s leading scorers have conceded 89.
That contrast is perhaps the single most interesting statistic in the competition.
One contender is trying to strangle teams.
Another is effectively asking opponents if they can survive a shootout.
Both methods have produced three wins from three.
JK Brackens may have the most balanced statistical profile of everybody.
They have scored 90, conceded 70 and own the best scoring differential in the championship at +20.
Thurles are +17.
Moycarkey and Nenagh are +12.
Kiladangan and Holycross are +10.
At individual level, the scoring race has become extraordinary.
Borris-Ileigh’s Eddie Ryan has accumulated 1-39, equivalent to 42 points.
Mullinahone’s Micheál Dunne is next on 0-34.
Willie Cleary and Séamus Callanan both finished their county campaigns on 1-28.
Darragh Woods has 1-27.
John McGrath has 1-26.
Stephen Ferncombe has 2-23.
Billy Seymour has 1-25.
Devon Ryan has 0-26.
Jamie Ormond has 2-19.
But total scoring and open-play scoring are two different conversations.
Jamie Ormond’s 2-10 from play is an enormous return.
Andrew Ormond has 1-11 from play.
Billy Seymour, Paul Flynn and Darragh Stakelum are all around the 1-10 from-play mark.
David Costigan has produced an exceptional 3-04 from play across three rounds.
Robbie Ryan has 2-07 from play.
Ger Browne has 1-10.
Sean Hayes and Jack Ryan have 2-06.
Ben West has 3-03.
Those are the scores that become increasingly important from here.
Knockout hurling gets tighter.
Referees tend to let more go.
Space disappears.
Placed-ball opportunities become harder to manufacture.
The teams capable of creating scores when everything is contested are usually the teams still standing late in the year.
So, after three rounds, who are we buying?
Who are we selling?
Who is gone but leaves with their reputation intact?
Who is technically alive but sliding?
And which of the four unbeaten group winners deserves to sit at No.1?
We begin, as always, at 16.
16. Upperchurch-Drombane
Previous ranking: 16
Round 1 ranking: 16
Record: 0 wins, 3 defeats
Scored: 64
Conceded: 82
Scoring difference: -18
Average scored: 21.33
Average conceded: 27.33
Round 1: Thurles Sarsfields 0-28, Upperchurch-Drombane 3-13
Round 2: Kilruane MacDonaghs 1-20, Upperchurch-Drombane 1-19
Round 3: Holycross/Ballycahill 1-28, Upperchurch-Drombane 0-20
Status: Relegation series
Upperchurch remain where they have been throughout these rankings.
Sixteenth.
But there is a danger in interpreting that as meaning they have been hopeless.
They have not.
The problem is that senior championship hurling is not marked on encouraging passages.
Upperchurch played plenty of good hurling across the three rounds.
They simply did not play enough of it for long enough.
Round 1 was a warning.
Three goals against Thurles Sarsfields ought to put most teams in a winning position.
Upperchurch still lost by six.
When an opponent can concede three majors and respond with 28 points, there is a structural problem somewhere.
Round 2 was the one that got away.
They fought Kilruane all the way, clawed themselves level in injury time and appeared to have salvaged the point that could transform the group.
Then they conceded the decisive free.
1-20 to 1-19.
That left Round 3 against Holycross as an all-or-nothing assignment.
And for thirty minutes, Upperchurch played exactly like a side fighting for survival.
They were excellent.
Energetic.
Aggressive.
Direct.
They led Holycross 0-14 to 0-11 at half-time.
They had been 0-6 to 0-1 ahead after the opening quarter.
Philip O’Dwyer was excellent.
Aaron Ryan was contributing.
Paddy Phelan was active.
Pat Ryan was dangerous.
The entire tone of the contest suggested an upset was possible.
Then the championship exposed their central problem one final time.
They could not sustain it.
Holycross scored 1-17 in the second half.
Upperchurch scored 0-6.
A three-point half-time lead became an eleven-point defeat.
That is a swing of 14 points in thirty minutes.
The goal from Darragh Woods changed the game, but the more worrying aspect was how quickly Upperchurch lost control afterwards.
Holycross suddenly found space everywhere.
The running power that had made Upperchurch so effective during the first half disappeared.
And once the momentum turned, there was no second response.
There are pieces here.
Philip O’Dwyer has been one of the brightest. His championship return of 1-08 from play is a serious number in a struggling side.
Pat Ryan finished with 0-17 overall.
Aaron Ryan showed flashes.
Paddy Phelan’s Round 3 performance was encouraging.
Keith Ryan remains an important defensive figure.
But the team total of 64 is the second-lowest in the championship.
The -18 differential is the worst.
And zero points from three games leaves no argument with their position.
Upperchurch enter the relegation series with one clear lesson.
The level they produced for thirty minutes against Holycross is senior standard.
The level they produced for the final thirty is how teams lose senior status.
Their entire season now comes down to bridging that gap.
15. CJK Mullinahone
Previous ranking: 15
Round 1 ranking: 15
Record: 0 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Scored: 69
Conceded: 86
Scoring difference: -17
Average scored: 23.00
Average conceded: 28.67
Round 1: Toomevara 0-20, CJK Mullinahone 0-20
Round 2: Nenagh Éire Óg 3-25, CJK Mullinahone 1-20
Round 3: JK Brackens 3-23, CJK Mullinahone 0-26
Status: Relegation series
There is one statistic that explains a large part of Mullinahone’s predicament.
One goal.
Three county championship matches.
Sixty-nine point-equivalents.
Only one green flag.
For comparison, JK Brackens and Kiladangan scored seven goals each.
Clonoulty/Rossmore scored seven.
Moycarkey-Borris, Nenagh and Borris-Ileigh scored six.
Mullinahone scored one.
You cannot consistently win senior championship games by trying to build everything from points.
Particularly when the defence is conceding 28.67 per game.
Round 1 was their missed opportunity.
They were three points ahead of Toomevara with five minutes remaining and could not close it.
A 0-20 draw felt disappointing then.
It looks even more costly now.
Round 2 was the low point.
Nenagh cut them open, scored three goals and had the game finished early.
Mullinahone had injury problems and a sending-off, but those were only partial explanations.
Their defensive structure had been in trouble before the numerical disadvantage arrived.
Round 3, strangely, may have been their most encouraging performance.
They scored 0-26 against JK Brackens, the most they produced in any of their three games.
They led during the first half.
At one stage they opened a six-point advantage.
Even after Jamie Ormond’s second goal cut that gap before half-time, Mullinahone continued to fight.
The sides were level at 0-21 to 2-15 around the 40th minute.
Later, at 3-17 to 0-25, Mullinahone were only a point behind with fewer than ten minutes remaining.
That is where the difference between a side at the top of the group and one at the bottom appeared.
JK Brackens scored six of the closing seven points.
Mullinahone could not go with them.
Again.
Micheál Dunne has been extraordinary.
His 0-34 makes him the second-highest scorer in the championship.
But the underlying breakdown matters.
Only nine point-equivalents of that total have come from play.
Dunne has been magnificent on placed balls, but a team cannot ask one player to manufacture almost half of its entire scoring output from dead-ball situations.
Martin Kehoe gave them a different weapon and finishes with the equivalent of 1-07 from play.
Sam Rowan produced good hurling across the championship.
Enda Keane hit five points in Round 3.
Jack Shelly competed.
There was more life in the attack against Brackens.
But it arrived too late.
Mullinahone’s final scoring difference of -17 is only one better than Upperchurch’s.
The corrected Group 4 arithmetic also left them behind Toomevara and sent them into the relegation series.
The good news?
Their Round 3 attack looked considerably healthier.
The bad news?
The next game is no longer about finding form.
It is about staying senior.
14. Clonoulty/Rossmore
Previous ranking: 11
Movement: Down 3
Round 1 ranking: 11
Record: 1 win, 2 defeats
Scored: 77
Conceded: 80
Scoring difference: -3
Average scored: 25.67
Average conceded: 26.67
Round 1: Clonoulty/Rossmore 3-20, Borris-Ileigh 2-21
Round 2: Moycarkey-Borris 3-17, Clonoulty/Rossmore 2-18
Round 3: Loughmore-Castleiney 2-21, Clonoulty/Rossmore 2-18
Status: Preliminary quarter-final v Nenagh Éire Óg
Sunday, September 6, 3.30pm, Borrisoleigh
The strangest team in the rankings.
Fourteenth.
Still in the championship.
And potentially still heading towards relegation.
That sentence alone tells you how unusual the current championship structure can become when divisional qualification and group position collide.
Clonoulty won the West.
That guaranteed them a preliminary quarter-final route.
But their county group campaign has left them at the bottom of Group 2 on the three-team mini-table.
If they do not go on to win the county championship, the relegation series still waits.
Extraordinary.
Their fall from 11th to 14th is not because they suddenly became a bad team.
It is because the evidence across three rounds became harder to ignore.
The opening round was vintage Clonoulty.
They were missing players.
Borris-Ileigh created goal chances.
The match swung repeatedly.
Clonoulty still found a way to win 3-20 to 2-21.
That performance reinforced everything we already knew about them.
Resilient.
Stubborn.
Comfortable in chaos.
Round 2 against Moycarkey was similar, except this time the late moments went against them.
They recovered from two David Costigan goals.
They levelled the game on the hour.
Then conceded two injury-time frees and lost 3-17 to 2-18.
Round 3 was different.
Loughmore hit them with a sledgehammer.
Inside seven minutes, Clonoulty were 2-5 to 0-0 behind.
Eleven point-equivalents down before they had scored.
Against the defending champions.
That is almost game over.
To their credit, Clonoulty then outscored Loughmore for the remainder.
That cannot be ignored.
They dragged the deficit to seven by half-time.
Cathal Bourke goaled after the break.
They reduced it to four late.
They got within a goal in injury time.
They had chances to make it even tighter.
But championship hurling at this level rarely forgives an eleven-point start.
Stephen Ferncombe continues to carry an enormous load.
His 2-23 gives him 29 point-equivalents, placing him among the leading scorers in the entire competition.
Jack Ryan has 2-06 from play, one of the strongest pure open-play returns in the championship.
Cathal Bourke has the equivalent of 1-06 from play.
Robert Doyle remains influential.
Michael Ryan has chipped in.
There is enough attacking quality.
The problem is the defensive side and the starts.
Clonoulty have conceded seven goals.
Only three teams have conceded more point-equivalents overall than their 80, and several of those are already eliminated or in relegation trouble.
Their mini-table fate was brutal.
Against Borris and Loughmore only, Borris finished at +1.
Loughmore finished at 0.
Clonoulty finished at -1.
One point separated second, third and fourth in the group.
That is the definition of a group of death.
Now comes Nenagh.
And that is a fascinating preliminary quarter-final because Clonoulty’s greatest strength, their refusal to die, meets a Nenagh team whose confidence has risen dramatically since Round 1.
Fourteenth feels extraordinarily low for a team capable of beating anybody.
But these are power rankings after three rounds, and one win from three, seven goals conceded and a bottom-of-group finish have consequences.
Do not mistake 14th for harmless.
Nenagh certainly will not.
13. Roscrea
Previous ranking: 14
Movement: Up 1
Round 1 ranking: 14
Record: 0 wins, 3 defeats
Scored: 76
Conceded: 88
Scoring difference: -12
Average scored: 25.33
Average conceded: 29.33
Round 1: Kiladangan 2-23, Roscrea 0-21
Round 2: Drom & Inch 1-23, Roscrea 1-22
Round 3: Cashel King Cormacs 1-30, Roscrea 3-21
Status: Relegation series
Three defeats.
Zero points.
And Roscrea actually move up a place.
That says more about their performances than their results.
Roscrea were far more competitive across the group stage than 0-3 suggests.
They lost to Kiladangan by eight.
They lost to Drom & Inch by one.
They lost to Cashel by three.
Their total scoring difference is -12.
That is bad.
It is not the profile of a team being routinely blown away.
Round 1 looked ugly at half-time.
Kiladangan had built a 1-18 to 0-9 advantage.
Roscrea appeared dead.
Then the second half changed.
They cut a twelve-point deficit to three before Kiladangan eventually finished with 1-02 unanswered.
That was the first sign that Roscrea were going to be awkward.
Round 2 was the killer.
They were three points up late against Drom.
They had the game in their hands.
Then Tony Cahill goaled.
Paudie Kinnane put Drom ahead.
Dan Ryan equalised.
Cormac Fitzpatrick won it.
The sixteen Roscrea wides became impossible to ignore.
One point.
One moment.
Season effectively gone.
By Round 3, their relegation fate was already sealed.
And yet they gave the championship’s most prolific attack another proper game.
Roscrea scored 3-21, their best attacking return of the group stage.
Leigh Loughnane was superb, hitting five points and earning Player of the Match recognition despite being on the losing side.
Luke Cashin contributed 1-07.
Shane Fletcher scored two goals.
Roscrea cut the deficit late and forced Cashel to finish the game.
That matters.
Shane Fletcher ends the group stage with 2-16 overall.
Leigh Loughnane has nine points from play.
Luke Cashin has become an important placed-ball option.
There is more variety in this attack than the standings suggest.
The defence, however, remains a glaring problem.
Eighty-eight conceded.
Only Cashel have conceded more.
Cashel can survive that because they have scored 97.
Roscrea cannot.
That is the difference.
Still, they enter the relegation series in much better shape than many 0-3 teams do.
They have scored 76, more than Moycarkey-Borris, more than Loughmore, more than Mullinahone, more than Kilruane and considerably more than Toomevara or Upperchurch.
The problem was never simply their ability to score.
It was game control.
Game management.
And preventing the damaging bursts at the other end.
Roscrea may be thirteenth.
Nobody will enjoy drawing them in a relegation game.
12. Toomevara
Previous ranking: 12
Round 1 ranking: 12
Record: 0 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Scored: 59
Conceded: 74
Scoring difference: -15
Average scored: 19.67
Average conceded: 24.67
Round 1: Toomevara 0-20, CJK Mullinahone 0-20
Round 2: JK Brackens 0-28, Toomevara 1-19
Round 3: Nenagh Éire Óg 3-17, Toomevara 1-14
Status: County championship over, avoids relegation
Toomevara’s defining emotion after Round 3 is probably relief.
Not satisfaction.
Relief.
Their championship ended with a deeply disappointing performance against Nenagh Éire Óg, but the corrected scoring arithmetic elsewhere in Group 4 kept them out of the relegation series.
That is a significant escape.
Because the Toomevara seen in Cloughjordan did not look like a side anybody would want entering a survival game with confidence.
The final group-stage attacking total is stark.
59 point-equivalents.
The lowest in the Senior Championship.
Under 20 per game.
That is not enough.
Round 1 against Mullinahone already hinted at the issue.
Toome needed a late comeback just to rescue a 0-20 draw against a side that would ultimately finish bottom.
Round 2 was better.
Much better.
They went toe-to-toe with JK Brackens.
The match was level ten times.
Adam Hall goaled.
Darragh McCarthy came from the bench and contributed six frees despite clearly not being fully fit.
Toome were right there late.
Then Brackens scored seven of the final eight points.
That final five minutes mattered.
Round 3 was supposed to be the response.
Nenagh against Toomevara.
A massive crowd.
Qualification at stake.
A rivalry that ordinarily guarantees edge.
Instead, Toome exited with a whimper.
Nenagh swarmed them.
Turnovers came repeatedly.
Barry Heffernan controlled the centre.
James Mackey worked relentlessly.
Nenagh’s half-forward line prevented Toomevara from settling into their delivery game.
Jake Morris got the goals.
The final margin was nine, 3-17 to 1-14.
It could have felt even worse.
Darragh McCarthy carried an enormous share of the scoring burden, finishing with 0-11, eight frees and a 65.
His championship total is 0-17, but only two of those points came from play.
That tells its own story.
Adam Hall has been Toome’s best attacking player from open play.
His 1-08 from play is a very strong personal return.
Jack Delaney gave them something against Brackens.
Austin Duff contributed a goal.
But the collective attack never functioned consistently.
Toomevara scored only two goals in three games.
There were too many stretches in which Darragh McCarthy was either absent, restricted or forced to generate everything himself.
Their defence was actually respectable enough.
Seventy-four conceded is considerably better than several teams above them.
Rory Brislane made important saves.
Conor O’Farrell had good moments.
Andrew Ryan competed.
That is why Toome stay ahead of some teams with better attacking totals.
But a club with Toomevara’s tradition will not be measuring this campaign by avoiding relegation on scoring difference.
Zero wins.
One point.
Nineteen-point-six-seven scored per match.
Season over in August.
That will hurt.
11. Kilruane MacDonaghs
Previous ranking: 13
Movement: Up 2
Round 1 ranking: 10
Record: 1 win, 2 defeats
Scored: 71
Conceded: 80
Scoring difference: -9
Average scored: 23.67
Average conceded: 26.67
Round 1: Holycross/Ballycahill 1-22, Kilruane MacDonaghs 2-18
Round 2: Kilruane MacDonaghs 1-20, Upperchurch-Drombane 1-19
Round 3: Thurles Sarsfields 2-27, Kilruane MacDonaghs 2-18
Status: Eliminated
Kilruane were one point away from beating Holycross in Round 1.
One point away from dropping points to Upperchurch in Round 2.
Then nine points away from Thurles in Round 3.
That progression explains why the season is over.
The first two games offered hope.
The third exposed the gap.
Against Holycross, Kilruane were more than competitive.
They scored 2-18.
Their open-play numbers were strong.
They pushed one of the championship favourites to the final puck.
Round 2 should have been the platform.
Instead, Upperchurch dragged them into another injury-time scrap and Kilruane required a late free to escape with a one-point win.
That kept them alive.
But it did not suggest a team building momentum.
Thurles confirmed it.
Kilruane entered Round 3 needing victory.
Sarsfields entered looking to secure the group.
The intensity gap was noticeable.
Thurles’ movement troubled them.
Kilruane’s direct game never consistently put the Sars defence under the type of pressure required.
Denis Maher controlled the square.
Conor Stakelum controlled the centre.
Cian Stakelum stretched Kilruane from wing-back.
Darragh Stakelum tore into them from the other end.
Kilruane missed opportunities too.
Kian O’Kelly had a goal chance.
Niall O’Meara missed a penalty.
Those moments might have changed the mood.
But by half-time, Sars were 1-14 to 0-9 ahead.
The contest was almost done.
Willie Cleary deserves enormous credit.
His 1-28 makes him one of the championship’s leading scorers.
He scored 1-11 against Thurles, with nine points from frees and the late goal offering consolation rather than hope.
Niall O’Meara’s overall open-play return, 1-08, is strong.
Thomas Cleary produced two goals during the group stage.
Kian O’Kelly had good moments.
There is still individual quality.
The concern is the overall age profile and trajectory.
Kilruane looked like a side needing fresh energy.
That does not mean ripping everything apart.
It means finding the next layer.
The next runners.
The next ball-winners.
The next players capable of changing the pace of a championship game.
Their 71 scored ranks in the lower half.
Their 80 conceded is too high.
They finish 11th because their first two performances contained more than those of some teams below them.
But by the end, the table did not lie.
10. Drom & Inch
Previous ranking: 8
Movement: Down 2
Round 1 ranking: 9
Record: 1 win, 2 defeats
Scored: 80
Conceded: 86
Scoring difference: -6
Average scored: 26.67
Average conceded: 28.67
Round 1: Cashel King Cormacs 0-32, Drom & Inch 0-28
Round 2: Drom & Inch 1-23, Roscrea 1-22
Round 3: Kiladangan 2-23, Drom & Inch 1-23
Status: Eliminated
There is something brutal about finishing tenth in these rankings after scoring 80 point-equivalents across three games.
Drom & Inch averaged almost 27 a match.
They scored 0-28 against Cashel.
They scored 1-23 against Roscrea.
They scored another 1-23 against Kiladangan.
And their championship is over.
That tells you something about the level of the 2026 Senior Hurling Championship.
It also tells you where Drom’s problem lay.
They conceded 86 point-equivalents, an average of 28.67 per game.
Only Roscrea and Cashel conceded more.
Cashel could survive it because they scored 97.
Roscrea could not.
Neither could Drom.
Round 1 was the warning.
Their 0-28 would win a huge percentage of senior championship matches.
Cashel hit 0-32.
Sixty points in the game and Drom still left empty-handed.
There were plenty of positives.
Cormac Fitzpatrick was excellent, landing six from play.
John Campion hit four.
Tony Cahill contributed another four.
Johnny Ryan scored three.
And Séamus Callanan remained immaculate on placed balls.
The issue was that Cashel created too easily at the other end.
Drom twice fought their way back to within a point in that game.
Cashel repeatedly found another answer.
That ability to stop an opponent’s momentum never became a consistent feature of Drom’s championship.
Round 2 almost ended the season.
Roscrea pushed them to the absolute limit.
Drom were three points behind with four minutes remaining.
Then Tony Cahill appeared.
Cormac Fitzpatrick sent the ball across the goalmouth, Cahill attacked it from the blind side and suddenly the game was level.
Paudie Kinnane put Drom ahead.
Dan Ryan levelled.
Cormac Fitzpatrick won it.
1-23 to 1-22.
Survival.
Barely.
That win sent them into Round 3 knowing exactly what was required.
Beat Kiladangan and qualify.
Anything else and they were gone.
For long periods in Dolla, Drom looked capable of doing it.
The game was played at a ferocious pace.
Callanan scored a brilliant first-half goal after Lorcan Campion broke through the Kiladangan structure.
Drom went 1-6 to 0-4 ahead.
Kiladangan responded.
The sides reached half-time level, Drom 1-10, Kiladangan 0-13.
Then the championship turned on two moments.
Both involved Dara O’Dwyer.
Drom had moved three clear around the 45-minute mark.
They were in the qualification position.
Then a high ball went into their full-back line.
O’Dwyer reacted first.
Goal.
Two minutes later another high delivery caused the same problem.
O’Dwyer reacted first again.
Goal.
The entire group changed in two attacks.
Kiladangan moved from chasing Drom to controlling the contest.
Johnny Horan came off the bench and landed two magnificent points.
Drom kept fighting.
Maidhc Fitzpatrick reduced the gap.
Callanan had one final goal opportunity.
Willie Connors threw himself in front of the shot.
Championship over.
The final score, Kiladangan 2-23 Drom 1-23, is almost a perfect summary of Drom’s year.
They scored 26 point-equivalents.
They still lost.
Again.
Callanan ends the county championship with 1-28, an exceptional personal contribution.
Cormac Fitzpatrick scored 0-11 from play.
John Campion produced 0-10 from play.
Maidhc Fitzpatrick increasingly influenced games and finished Round 3 with five points.
Tony Cahill had important moments.
Podge Campion was still hugely influential.
There was enough attacking talent to qualify.
But championship contenders cannot concede 32, 25 and 29 point-equivalents in successive rounds and expect to survive.
There is no shame in losing to Cashel and Kiladangan.
Both are legitimate Dan Breen contenders.
But Drom’s ambition is not to be competitive with contenders.
It is to be one.
They leave this championship having demonstrated that their attack remains dangerous.
The work for 2027 is obvious.
Twenty-eight point-equivalents conceded per game is simply too much.
9. Loughmore-Castleiney
Previous ranking: 9
No movement
Round 1 ranking: 1
Record: 1 win, 2 defeats
Scored: 69
Conceded: 76
Scoring difference: -7
Average scored: 23.00
Average conceded: 25.33
Round 1: Moycarkey-Borris 1-19, Loughmore-Castleiney 0-15
Round 2: Borris-Ileigh 3-21, Loughmore-Castleiney 1-24
Round 3: Loughmore-Castleiney 2-21, Clonoulty/Rossmore 2-18
Status: Preliminary quarter-final
Next: Loughmore-Castleiney v Holycross/Ballycahill
Saturday, September 5, 5.00pm
Venue: The Ragg
We ranked Loughmore-Castleiney first after Round 1.
They had just been beaten by seven points.
That decision generated exactly the reaction expected.
How could a team that had lost 1-19 to 0-15 remain the No.1 team in the championship?
The answer then was simple.
Because they were the champions.
Because they had won the Mid Championship.
Because they had the preliminary-quarter-final safety net.
Because their championship pedigree had earned them the benefit of the doubt.
Two rounds later, they are ninth.
And yet the fundamental warning remains exactly the same.
Do not bury Loughmore-Castleiney while they are still breathing.
The group stage was poor.
There is no point pretending otherwise.
Their 69 point-equivalents is joint-third lowest in the competition.
Only Toomevara and Upperchurch scored fewer.
Mullinahone also scored 69.
This is Loughmore.
A team containing John McGrath, Noel McGrath, Brian McGrath, Liam McGrath and a host of players who have spent years making late-season championship hurling their natural environment.
An average attacking return of 23 is not where they expect to be.
Round 1 was particularly troubling.
Moycarkey did not simply beat them.
They physically imposed themselves.
They hunted Loughmore.
They tackled them.
They held the defending champions to 0-15, the lowest individual team return of the opening round.
Liam McGrath was absent.
The attack became heavily dependent on John McGrath.
And when Ciaran Connolly went off injured late, the concerns increased.
Round 2 was better.
Much better.
Loughmore led Borris-Ileigh 0-13 to 0-9 at half-time.
They were hurling with more rhythm.
Eoin O’Connell was prominent.
Ciaran McCormack was scoring.
Liam McGrath was back.
John McGrath remained deadly from frees.
Then Borris detonated.
Three second-half goals.
Eddie Ryan from the penalty spot.
Paddy McCormack.
Jack Bevans.
Suddenly Loughmore were chasing.
They nearly rescued it.
Of course they did.
They reduced a six-point deficit to two.
They spent the final moments searching for the goal that would rescue something.
Borris held them out.
Two games.
Two defeats.
The champions were bottom of the group.
Then Round 3 arrived.
And for seven minutes, we saw Loughmore again.
Not the hesitant team that had started the county championship.
The actual Loughmore.
Ciaran McCormack goal after barely a minute.
Brian McGrath point.
Ed Connolly point.
Liam McGrath point.
John McGrath goal.
Two more Liam McGrath scores.
2-5 to 0-0 after seven minutes.
Eleven point-equivalents to nothing.
The defending champions had gone from sleepwalking towards danger to blowing Clonoulty off the field.
They never sustained that level.
That matters.
Clonoulty actually outscored them over the remainder.
A seven-point half-time lead came under serious pressure.
Cathal Bourke goaled.
Clonoulty got within four.
Then three.
Late wides could have made the finish even more uncomfortable.
But Loughmore found enough.
Noel McGrath’s deployment at centre-back was particularly interesting.
Brian McGrath was used further forward.
That gave Loughmore a different shape.
John McGrath finished with 1-6.
Liam McGrath contributed 0-6.
Philip O’Connell hit three points.
Ed Connolly hit three.
There was finally a broader spread.
The concern is injuries.
John Meagher was forced off.
Ciaran Connolly went off injured.
Liam McGrath was also withdrawn with an issue.
Those situations have to be monitored closely.
John McGrath remains the central scoreboard figure.
His championship return is 1-26, equivalent to 29 points.
But even within that number is an issue.
Loughmore cannot expect him to carry the attacking burden indefinitely.
The positive from Round 3 was that the support began to arrive.
Their mini-table fate tells you how absurd Group 2 became.
Moycarkey finished 3-0.
Borris, Loughmore and Clonoulty all finished on two points.
Strip out the games against Moycarkey and the mini-table became:
Borris-Ileigh +1.
Loughmore-Castleiney 0.
Clonoulty/Rossmore -1.
One single point separated second from fourth.
Loughmore finished fourth.
Their divisional championship means it does not matter in the conventional sense.
They still have a route.
And now comes Holycross.
That is some preliminary quarter-final.
Youth against experience.
Running power against championship memory.
One of the most highly regarded emerging teams in the county against the side that has set the standard.
If Holycross beat them, the champions are gone.
If Loughmore win?
Nobody will care that they went 1-2 in the group.
Nobody.
Because once Loughmore reach the serious end of a knockout championship, the context changes completely.
They remain ninth because the three-round body of evidence demands it.
But ninth is not the same as ninth most dangerous.
That distinction matters.
8. Borris-Ileigh
Previous ranking: 10
Movement: Up 2
Round 1 ranking: 13
Record: 1 win, 2 defeats
Scored: 78
Conceded: 80
Scoring difference: -2
Average scored: 26.00
Average conceded: 26.67
Round 1: Clonoulty/Rossmore 3-20, Borris-Ileigh 2-21
Round 2: Borris-Ileigh 3-21, Loughmore-Castleiney 1-24
Round 3: Moycarkey-Borris 2-18, Borris-Ileigh 1-18
Status: County quarter-final
Borris-Ileigh lost twice in three rounds.
They also beat the defending champions and qualified directly for the quarter-finals.
That is Group 2 in one sentence.
Their climb from 13th after Round 1 to eighth now is deserved.
The opening defeat to Clonoulty could easily have been a win.
Borris created three excellent goal opportunities and did not convert them.
They still scored 2-21.
They still had a late opportunity to take the game.
Jason O’Dwyer denied them.
Clonoulty then landed the late scores.
That one defeat left Borris immediately under pressure.
Their response was outstanding.
Borris-Ileigh 3-21 Loughmore-Castleiney 1-24.
That was the performance that changed their championship.
The first half belonged largely to Loughmore.
The second belonged to Borris.
Four unanswered points after the restart wiped out Loughmore’s advantage.
Then the goals arrived.
Eddie Ryan penalty.
Paddy McCormack.
Jack Bevans.
Three different routes to the net.
Three enormous championship moments.
Loughmore came again late.
Borris held them out.
That victory put them in position to qualify.
Round 3 against Moycarkey could not have started much worse.
Moycarkey led 2-6 to 0-6 at half-time.
Borris had scored only once from play for a long stretch of the opening period.
The Mid side’s structure was strangling them.
Eddie Ryan was scoring from placed balls, but the open-play attack was finding almost nothing.
Then Borris rallied.
Sean McCormack came forward.
James Devaney was moved further out.
Eddie Ryan kept punishing fouls.
Devaney finally found the goal in the 51st minute.
Suddenly Borris were within one.
They pushed.
Moycarkey responded.
Borris pushed again.
Moycarkey responded again.
The final margin was three.
Moycarkey 2-18, Borris 1-18.
The loss did not eliminate them.
Every point suddenly became part of the mathematics.
And when all three tied teams were separated, Borris had done just enough.
+1.
That was the margin between a direct county quarter-final and a much more awkward route.
One point.
The concern with Borris is obvious in the individual scoring data.
Eddie Ryan has been sensational.
His championship return of 1-39 is enormous.
Forty-two point-equivalents.
Nobody is close to him.
But only a small portion of that extraordinary tally has come from open play.
Against Moycarkey, he scored 0-13.
Twelve were frees.
That is both a compliment and a warning.
The compliment is that Eddie Ryan is punishing almost everything.
The warning is that Borris need to create more scores away from placed balls when knockout defences tighten.
There are solutions.
Paddy McCormack has scored 2-04 from play across the championship.
James Devaney has contributed a goal and six points overall.
Jack Bevans has 1-02 overall and showed against Loughmore that he can explode through a defence.
Conor Kenny can score.
Kieran Maher carries goal threat.
If Tom Delaney returns, another major piece comes back into the picture.
Defensively, Borris need to improve.
Eighty conceded is not a title-winning number.
They have conceded seven goals across the three rounds.
That cannot continue.
But they have done the most important thing.
They are through.
No preliminary round.
No relegation complication.
Quarter-final hurling.
And a North championship already secured.
This is a dangerous team because the attack has obvious room to improve even though they are already averaging 26.
If the supporting forwards begin reducing the dependence on Eddie Ryan’s placed balls, Borris could become considerably more dangerous than eighth suggests.
7. Kiladangan
Previous ranking: 6
Movement: Down 1
Round 1 ranking: 6
Record: 2 wins, 1 defeat
Scored: 89
Conceded: 79
Scoring difference: +10
Average scored: 29.67
Average conceded: 26.33
Round 1: Kiladangan 2-23, Roscrea 0-21
Round 2: Cashel King Cormacs 3-23, Kiladangan 3-22
Round 3: Kiladangan 2-23, Drom & Inch 1-23
Status: County quarter-final
Kiladangan are seventh.
That may be the ranking most likely to irritate people.
Look at the numbers.
89 scored.
Third-highest total in the championship.
+10 differential.
Two wins from three.
Quarter-final secured.
Billy Seymour in serious form.
Paul Flynn back and scoring.
Sean Hayes dangerous.
Dara O’Dwyer suddenly providing another goal option.
Why only seventh?
Because the teams above them have either produced a more complete body of work or have routes and performances we currently trust slightly more.
There is very little between the top seven.
Kiladangan’s Round 1 performance was excellent for long periods.
They tore Roscrea apart in the first half.
1-18 to 0-9 at half-time.
Billy Seymour was outstanding.
Sean Hayes goaled.
Bryan McLoughney goaled.
The scoring from play was exceptional.
Then the warning came.
Roscrea cut the deficit from twelve to three.
Kiladangan eventually responded with 1-02 late to win comfortably on the scoreboard.
But the drop-off stayed in the mind.
Round 2 made that issue much more serious.
For long stretches against Cashel, Kiladangan looked like the better team.
Billy Seymour was outstanding again.
Paul Flynn returned and immediately altered the attack.
Kiladangan moved the ball with purpose.
They led by seven with five minutes of normal time remaining.
Seven.
Five minutes.
They lost.
That is still almost impossible to explain.
Sean Hayes had just goaled.
Kiladangan appeared to have delivered the decisive blow.
Then Aaron Browne saved.
David McGrath goaled.
Cashel began coming.
The lead shrank.
And deep in injury time Cathal Quinn somehow flicked the winning goal.
Cashel 3-23 Kiladangan 3-22.
Thirty-one point-equivalents scored.
Still beaten.
For Kiladangan, Round 3 was therefore about more than qualification.
It was about showing they could absorb pressure and close a championship game.
Drom provided exactly that test.
Drom led by three late in the second half.
Drom had to win.
The pressure was real.
This time Kiladangan answered it.
Dara O’Dwyer changed the game.
Two goals in approximately two minutes.
Both came from high deliveries causing uncertainty inside the Drom defence.
O’Dwyer reacted quicker than everybody else.
Then Johnny Horan came from the bench and landed two wonderful points.
Paul Flynn finished the game off.
When Callanan got one final chance, Willie Connors produced the block.
Those details matter.
A team that failed catastrophically to close Round 2 responded by closing Round 3.
That is progress.
Billy Seymour’s championship has been exceptional.
He has 1-25 overall.
More importantly, his open-play production is elite.
Approximately 1-10 from play.
Paul Flynn’s return has given Kiladangan another elite scorer and creator. His three-game total is already 1-11, despite missing Round 1, and approximately 1-10 of that has come from play.
Sean Hayes has 2-06, essentially all created in open play.
Bryan McLoughney has 1-05.
Dara O’Dwyer now has two goals.
This is why Kiladangan can win the Dan Breen Cup.
They do not have one attacking route.
They have several.
Seymour can destroy you.
Flynn can destroy you.
Hayes can run through you.
McLoughney can score.
O’Dwyer has emerged as a goal threat.
Willie Connors can influence the scoreboard from distance.
The problem remains defensive consistency.
Seventy-nine conceded is manageable but not outstanding.
Three goals conceded against Cashel was decisive.
Drom created major opportunities too.
Kiladangan have the attacking firepower to beat anybody remaining.
They also have enough defensive vulnerability to lose to several of them.
That combination makes them absolutely fascinating entering the quarter-finals.
Seventh.
But separated from the very top by inches.
6. Nenagh Éire Óg
Previous ranking: 7
Movement: Up 1
Round 1 ranking: 3
Record: 2 wins, 1 defeat
Scored: 82
Conceded: 70
Scoring difference: +12
Average scored: 27.33
Average conceded: 23.33
Round 1: JK Brackens 4-18, Nenagh Éire Óg 0-22
Round 2: Nenagh Éire Óg 3-25, CJK Mullinahone 1-20
Round 3: Nenagh Éire Óg 3-17, Toomevara 1-14
Status: Preliminary quarter-final
Next: Clonoulty/Rossmore v Nenagh Éire Óg
Sunday, September 6, 3.30pm
Venue: Borrisoleigh
Three weeks ago, Nenagh had a problem.
They had just conceded four goals to JK Brackens.
Their short build-up had repeatedly broken down.
Brackens had generated close to forty shooting opportunities.
Nenagh looked vulnerable.
The concern was not that they had lost.
The concern was how.
Fast-forward two rounds.
Nenagh have won twice.
They have scored six goals.
They have conceded only two.
And suddenly their championship has a completely different feel.
Round 2 against Mullinahone was the necessary reset.
No Jake Morris.
No Mason Cawley.
Pressure everywhere.
Nenagh responded with 3-25.
Ben West was excellent and scored two goals.
Philip Hickey got another.
Josh Keller led the line.
Sam O’Farrell grew into the game.
Barry Heffernan dominated from centre-back.
The attacking spread was far healthier.
They had twelve different scorers.
Even allowing for Mullinahone’s problems, that was a serious response.
Round 3 was the bigger test.
Nenagh against Toomevara with qualification effectively on the line.
A huge crowd.
Local rivalry.
Toome’s season on the line.
This was exactly the kind of fixture where form could disappear.
It did not.
Nenagh controlled them.
Their work-rate was probably the most impressive part.
The swarm-tackling repeatedly suffocated Toomevara possession.
Barry Heffernan again controlled the central defensive area.
Conor Ryan and James Mackey did huge work.
Mackey’s job around Darragh McCarthy was particularly important.
Ben West, Josh Keller and Filip McIntyre worked backwards and prevented Toomevara from getting easy delivery from their half-back line.
Then Jake Morris returned.
And the difference was obvious.
Two goals.
The first arrived when a long delivery was not dealt with and Morris ruthlessly punished it.
The second came from a raking Ben West clearance.
Game over.
That is what elite forwards do.
The final score, Nenagh 3-17 Toomevara 1-14, actually understates how comfortable the performance felt.
Toome never developed sustained pressure.
Morris gives Nenagh something they simply did not possess against JK Brackens.
An elite finisher inside.
Ben West’s championship has been particularly interesting.
His 3-03 from play makes him one of the most productive open-play attackers in the competition.
Sam O’Farrell has 0-15 overall.
Mikey Heffernan has 0-12.
Philip Hickey has a goal and two points.
Josh Keller has become increasingly important even without huge personal scoring numbers because of the way he gives the attack a focal point.
The defensive improvement matters just as much.
Nenagh have conceded 70, joint-fourth best in the championship.
Take away the four-goal disaster against Brackens and the underlying defensive numbers are excellent.
The question is whether Round 1 revealed a flaw that stronger teams can reopen.
That is what knockout hurling will test.
Can a team press Nenagh’s short build-up the way Brackens did?
Can they force turnovers?
Can they prevent Barry Heffernan dictating?
Can they isolate the inside line?
Clonoulty will certainly try.
That preliminary quarter-final is another fascinating clash.
Clonoulty will make it physical.
They will not disappear if Nenagh get a lead.
Stephen Ferncombe will punish indiscipline.
Jack Ryan gives them a goal threat.
Nenagh cannot afford the loose opening they produced against JK Brackens.
But there is now a significant body of evidence suggesting that Nenagh are improving.
Morris is back.
West is scoring goals.
The defence is organised.
Heffernan is flying.
The work-rate has gone up.
Sixth is a significant recovery from where they appeared to be heading after Round 1.
And if they beat Clonoulty, there is every chance they climb again.
5. Holycross/Ballycahill
Previous ranking: 3
Movement: Down 2
Round 1 ranking: 2
Record: 2 wins, 1 defeat
Scored: 78
Conceded: 68
Scoring difference: +10
Average scored: 26.00
Average conceded: 22.67
Round 1: Holycross/Ballycahill 1-22, Kilruane MacDonaghs 2-18
Round 2: Thurles Sarsfields 2-18, Holycross/Ballycahill 2-16
Round 3: Holycross/Ballycahill 1-28, Upperchurch-Drombane 0-20
Status: Preliminary quarter-final
Next: Loughmore-Castleiney v Holycross/Ballycahill
Saturday, September 5, 5.00pm
Venue: The Ragg
Holycross fall two places.
Not because they had a bad Round 3.
Quite the opposite.
Their second-half demolition of Upperchurch was one of the most impressive thirty-minute stretches of the entire weekend.
But the top of these rankings has become brutally competitive.
There are four unbeaten group winners.
There is a Nenagh team that has recovered.
Kiladangan have massive attacking numbers.
Something has to give.
Holycross began the county championship carrying enormous expectation.
For some, too much.
They were immediately handed the label of champions-elect.
That was always dangerous for a team whose greatest asset is its youth.
Round 1 demonstrated both their ceiling and their vulnerability.
Kilruane pushed them to the final moments.
Holycross found the late scores.
A one-point victory.
Job done.
Round 2 was the first setback.
Thurles Sarsfields were better.
The two-point margin was fair.
Sars hit fourteen first-half wides and still led at the interval.
Holycross twice got goals from Robbie Ryan.
They levelled late.
But when the match reached the decisive stretch, Thurles found three points.
Holycross did not.
That game mattered.
This young team needed to experience a championship opponent refusing to bend.
Round 3 suggested they learned something from it.
For half an hour against Upperchurch, Holycross were in serious trouble.
The Church led 0-6 to 0-1.
Holycross needed fifteen minutes to register from play.
They went into half-time 0-14 to 0-11 behind.
Upperchurch were fighting for their lives and were winning almost every physical contest.
Then Holycross changed.
The transformation was dramatic.
Mikey Nally won the Ewan Bourke puckout.
Darragh Woods came off his shoulder.
Goal.
Suddenly everything opened.
Holycross then went on a run of 1-7 to 0-1.
Robbie Ryan started finding space.
Tiarnán Ryan took over.
Evan Morris scored.
Ben Hennessy scored.
The half-back line drove forward.
Upperchurch were overwhelmed.
The final score was 1-28 to 0-20.
Thirty-one point-equivalents.
Twenty-eight points.
And perhaps most importantly, twelve different scorers.
That is significant because Holycross had been too dependent on Darragh Woods and Robbie Ryan through the opening two games.
Round 3 showed a broader attack.
Woods remains outstanding.
His championship total is 1-27, equivalent to 30 points.
He is among the leading scorers in the competition.
Robbie Ryan has 2-09 overall and approximately 2-07 from play.
That open-play figure is elite.
Tiarnán Ryan now has eight points and produced a huge Round 3 performance.
Eoin Craddock scored three against Upperchurch.
Tadhg Gould covered an enormous amount of ground.
Bryan O’Mara and Cathal Barrett remain central to the defensive structure.
Ewan Bourke’s puckout was part of the move that changed Round 3.
There are encouraging personnel developments too.
Jim Ryan returned.
Seanie McGrath returned.
The concern is Joe Caesar, who missed Round 3 with a knee problem.
Holycross need their attacking options available.
Because their next game is not against an eliminated team.
It is Loughmore.
This is the moment we learn how far the Holycross project has really come.
Everything about the matchup is compelling.
Loughmore carry experience.
Holycross carry youth.
Loughmore have lived through county knockout championships repeatedly.
Holycross are trying to become that team.
Loughmore’s group attack has been poor.
Holycross’s defence has conceded only 68, joint-second best.
Holycross should look at the numbers and believe.
But knockout championship against Loughmore is not a spreadsheet exercise.
This is why Holycross are fifth rather than third.
Not because the ceiling has fallen.
Because now they have to prove it in the environment that matters.
Beat Loughmore and one of the biggest questions surrounding Holycross disappears immediately.
4. JK Brackens
Previous ranking: 4
No movement
Round 1 ranking: 8
Record: 3 wins, 0 defeats
Scored: 90
Conceded: 70
Scoring difference: +20
Average scored: 30.00
Average conceded: 23.33
Round 1: JK Brackens 4-18, Nenagh Éire Óg 0-22
Round 2: JK Brackens 0-28, Toomevara 1-19
Round 3: JK Brackens 3-23, CJK Mullinahone 0-26
Status: Group winner, seeded county quarter-finalist
Here is the argument for JK Brackens being No.1.
Three games.
Three wins.
+20 scoring difference.
Best in the championship.
90 scored.
Second highest.
70 conceded.
Joint-fourth best.
Seven goals scored.
Only one conceded.
Read that last one again.
JK Brackens have scored seven goals and conceded one across three senior championship games.
That is an extraordinary differential around the most valuable score in hurling.
So why are they fourth?
Because there are three teams above them with equally strong arguments built in different ways.
That is all.
Brackens have been superb.
Round 1 was the statement.
Nenagh arrived as one of the leading championship contenders.
Brackens dismantled them.
4-18 to 0-22.
Four goals.
Sixteen wides.
Almost forty shots.
The scary thing was not simply the 30 point-equivalents scored.
It was what the total could have been.
Shane Doyle goal.
Dean McEnroe goal.
Andrew Ormond goal.
Eanna McBride goal.
Lyndon Fairbrother scored 0-10.
Jamie Ormond was outstanding.
Nenagh’s build-up could not live with the pressure.
That was the first major re-evaluation of the championship.
Round 2 demonstrated adaptability.
Fairbrother was missing.
The goals disappeared.
Brackens simply scored 0-28 instead.
Toomevara pushed them hard.
The game was level ten times.
Toome went back ahead during the second half.
Darragh McCarthy’s frees kept the pressure on.
Then Brackens did something good teams do.
They closed.
Seven of the final eight points.
Game over.
Round 3 should have been awkward.
Top spot was already secured.
Mullinahone were fighting for survival.
The South side played like it too.
They led.
At one stage they were six ahead.
Brackens did not panic.
Jamie Ormond’s second goal before half-time prevented Mullinahone from carrying the full advantage into the break.
By the 40th minute the teams were level.
Brackens took over.
Eanna McBride goaled.
Mullinahone came back to within one.
Then Brackens scored six of the final seven points.
Again.
Another finish owned.
That is becoming a habit.
Jamie Ormond’s championship has been outstanding.
2-19 overall.
Approximately 2-10 from play.
That from-play figure is perhaps the most impressive attacking statistic in the Senior Championship.
His brother Andrew has approximately 1-11 from play.
Fourteen point-equivalents created without relying on placed balls.
Eanna McBride has 2-05 from play.
Shane Doyle has 1-07 overall.
Paddy Cadell has been superb at centre-back and has also contributed four points.
Conor Cadell has controlled large stretches through the middle.
Luke Ormond has defended well.
Cathal Scully has been strong.
Michael Cahill contributes both defensively and on the scoreboard.
Ned Walsh keeps appearing with scores.
And they managed the last two rounds without the man who scored ten points in Round 1.
That may be the most significant thing of all.
Lyndon Fairbrother was supposed to be central to their attack.
He went out injured.
JK scored 0-28 and 3-23 without him.
That is depth.
The defensive goal statistic cannot be ignored either.
One goal conceded.
Across three senior championship games.
Everybody talks about Brackens’ attacking explosion against Nenagh.
Their defence might actually be the more important championship indicator.
No team has been better at preventing green flags.
Quarter-final opponents will now have to deal with a team that has shown it can win through goals, points, pressure, physicality and late-game scoring bursts.
JK Brackens entered these rankings at eighth.
They are now fourth.
And there is a perfectly reasonable argument that even that is conservative.
3. Moycarkey-Borris
Previous ranking: 5
Movement: Up 2
Round 1 ranking: 4
Record: 3 wins, 0 defeats
Scored: 72
Conceded: 60
Scoring difference: +12
Average scored: 24.00
Average conceded: 20.00
Round 1: Moycarkey-Borris 1-19, Loughmore-Castleiney 0-15
Round 2: Moycarkey-Borris 3-17, Clonoulty/Rossmore 2-18
Round 3: Moycarkey-Borris 2-18, Borris-Ileigh 1-18
Status: Group winner, seeded county quarter-finalist
The numbers are almost weird.
Moycarkey-Borris are one of four teams to finish three from three.
Yet among those four group winners, they have comfortably the lowest attacking total.
Cashel scored 97.
JK Brackens 90.
Thurles Sarsfields 85.
Moycarkey?
72.
And yet there is a serious argument that Moycarkey produced the most impressive group-stage campaign of anybody.
Why?
Look at the other number.
60 conceded.
Twenty per game.
Best defence in the championship.
By a distance.
And then look at the opponents.
Loughmore-Castleiney.
Mid champions.
Clonoulty/Rossmore.
West champions.
Borris-Ileigh.
North champions.
Three divisional champions.
Three wins.
That is a championship resume.
Round 1 changed how everybody looked at Moycarkey.
They did not steal a win over Loughmore.
They physically took the game away from them.
They held the defending champions to 0-15.
Loughmore scored only eight times from open play by one match-reporting measure, although individual scorer breakdowns complicate that exact count.
The broader point was unmistakable.
Moycarkey suffocated them.
Rhys Shelly controlled huge areas through his puckouts and long-range striking.
The Hayes influence in defence was immense.
David Costigan goaled.
Kieran Morris converted.
Moycarkey looked hungrier.
It was the best defensive performance of Round 1.
Round 2 tested something completely different.
Clonoulty scored two goals.
They kept coming back.
David Costigan scored twice.
Jack Hayes came off the bench and scored another.
Clonoulty levelled on the hour.
Moycarkey had to find a finish.
Kieran Morris free.
Killian Cantwell free.
Done.
That showed composure.
Round 3 asked another question.
Could Moycarkey finish the group unbeaten against a Borris-Ileigh side that had just beaten the county champions?
Again, yes.
The first half was excellent.
Stephen Walsh and Costigan got them moving.
Rhys Shelly converted a penalty.
Kieran Morris got the crucial touch to Shelly’s long delivery just before half-time.
2-6 to 0-6.
Then Borris came.
Of course they did.
Eddie Ryan kept landing frees.
James Devaney was moved out and became far more influential.
Devaney goaled.
The margin fell to one.
Moycarkey did not panic.
Joe Egan point.
Max Hackett point.
Rhys Shelly free.
David Costigan point.
Kevin O’Regan point.
Every time Borris asked a question, Moycarkey produced something.
That is the theme of their championship.
They have answers.
The scoring spread is interesting because they do not possess one huge scorer comparable to Eddie Ryan, Michael Dunne, Darragh Woods or John McGrath.
Kieran Morris leads them at 1-13.
David Costigan has 3-04, all of it essentially coming through his open-play influence.
That is an outstanding figure.
Three goals and four points from play from a player who has become one of the stories of the championship.
Killian Cantwell has ten points overall.
Rhys Shelly has contributed the equivalent of nine point-equivalents himself, including a penalty against Borris and long-range frees.
Max Hackett scores.
Joe Egan scores.
Jack Hayes has already produced a major from the bench.
Stephen Walsh scores from wing-back.
The attack is distributed.
But Moycarkey’s real power lies behind the ball.
Sixty conceded.
Fifteen against Loughmore.
Twenty-four against Clonoulty.
Twenty-one against Borris.
Those are serious numbers.
The three opponents averaged only 20 against them.
And those were not weak attacks.
This is why Moycarkey jump to third.
They are not the flashiest.
They do not produce the biggest raw totals.
They may not have the household names of several sides around them.
But championship hurling repeatedly rewards teams that can defend, control, stay calm and find the necessary score rather than the spectacular one.
Moycarkey have done that three times.
They are seeded.
They are unbeaten.
Their defence is No.1.
And they have already beaten three divisional champions.
Nobody gets to call them a surprise package anymore.
They are contenders.
2. Thurles Sarsfields
Previous ranking: 2
No movement
Round 1 ranking: 7
Record: 3 wins, 0 defeats
Scored: 85
Conceded: 68
Scoring difference: +17
Average scored: 28.33
Average conceded: 22.67
Round 1: Thurles Sarsfields 0-28, Upperchurch-Drombane 3-13
Round 2: Thurles Sarsfields 2-18, Holycross/Ballycahill 2-16
Round 3: Thurles Sarsfields 2-27, Kilruane MacDonaghs 2-18
Status: Group winner, seeded county quarter-finalist
What if Thurles Sarsfields are back?
Not back as in competitive.
Not back as in capable of reaching a quarter-final.
Back as in a genuine Dan Breen Cup threat.
Three games have produced an increasingly compelling answer.
Round 1 was good.
Round 2 was better.
Round 3 was emphatic.
The progression matters.
Sars started the county championship with a 0-28 to 3-13 win over Upperchurch.
Conceding three goals would ordinarily create major concern.
But their response was impressive.
They kept the scoreboard moving.
Conor Stakelum operated effectively at centre-back.
The attack had spread.
Eleven players scored.
Sars controlled long stretches.
Round 2 was where the perception changed.
Holycross arrived carrying huge hype.
Sarsfields beat them.
And the two-point margin actually flattered Holycross more than Thurles.
Sars hit fourteen first-half wides.
Fourteen.
And still led at half-time.
Robbie Ryan goaled immediately after the restart.
Holycross were expected to come.
Thurles absorbed it.
The match reached 2-15 apiece late.
Then came the championship finish.
Aidan McCormack.
Paddy Creedon.
Euan Murray.
Three points.
Two-point win.
That was the moment this stopped looking like an interesting young side and started looking like something more mature.
Round 3 strengthened the argument.
Kilruane had to win.
Thurles looked like the team with greater urgency.
Their ball movement was faster.
Their puckout shape was better.
Their running power was better.
Denis Maher’s switch to full-back continued to work.
Thomas Cleary and Kian O’Kelly were unable to dominate the square.
Conor Stakelum again controlled centre-back.
The Stakelum influence across the field was enormous.
Cian Stakelum may have produced the standout individual display.
Three points from wing-back.
Athleticism.
Puckout movement.
Ability to stretch Kilruane’s shape.
At the other end, Darragh Stakelum scored 1-6 from play in a devastating performance.
Euan Murray’s vision for the second goal was outstanding.
His run opened the field.
He saw Darragh Stakelum.
Goal.
Game gone.
The final score was 2-27 to 2-18.
Thirty-three point-equivalents.
Their biggest attacking total of the championship.
Thurles have therefore improved their scoring return every time the level of pressure has increased.
Round 1: 28.
Round 2: 24.
Round 3: 33.
The slight dip against Holycross is irrelevant in context because of the quality of opposition and the fourteen first-half wides.
The personnel story is equally important.
Ronan Maher has not been available.
One of the best club hurlers in the county.
One of the best defenders of his generation.
And Sars have gone 3-0 without him.
That should worry everybody else.
Conor Stakelum has been superb at six.
Denis Maher’s return to the defensive line has stabilised the square.
Cian Stakelum has emerged.
Henry Fogarty and Keith Loughnane provide youth and legs.
Daniel and Kieran Rossiter are part of the new energy.
Euan Murray gives them vision through the centre.
Aidan Stakelum is contributing.
Darragh Stakelum now has 1-13 overall, with approximately 1-10 from play.
Aidan McCormack is on 1-22 overall and remains ruthless from frees.
Paddy Creedon has scored 1-05 from play.
Eoin Purcell carries goal threat.
The attack no longer depends on one scorer.
The defence no longer depends on one Maher.
That is the transformation.
Their overall numbers are excellent.
85 scored.
68 conceded.
+17.
Only JK Brackens have a better differential.
Only Moycarkey have a better defensive record.
Only Cashel, JK and Kiladangan have scored more.
That is balance.
Why are they not No.1?
Because one side has simply produced attacking numbers too extreme to ignore while also going three from three.
But there is almost nothing between them.
And if somebody wanted to place Thurles first based on balance, form, depth and their increasingly impressive defensive structure, there is a perfectly legitimate argument.
The Sars are not coming.
They have arrived.
1. Cashel King Cormacs
Previous ranking: 1
No movement
Round 1 ranking: 5
Record: 3 wins, 0 defeats
Scored: 97
Conceded: 89
Scoring difference: +8
Average scored: 32.33
Average conceded: 29.67
Round 1: Cashel King Cormacs 0-32, Drom & Inch 0-28
Round 2: Cashel King Cormacs 3-23, Kiladangan 3-22
Round 3: Cashel King Cormacs 1-30, Roscrea 3-21
Status: Group winner, seeded county quarter-finalist
Ninety-seven.
Start there.
97 point-equivalents in three games.
An average of 32.33 per match.
The highest-scoring attack in the Senior Hurling Championship.
Eight clear of Kiladangan.
Seven clear of JK Brackens.
Twelve clear of Thurles Sarsfields.
And they have done it while scoring only four goals.
That last statistic is remarkable.
Cashel’s attacking supremacy has not been built on a freak run of goals.
They have simply kept putting the ball over the bar.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Across three rounds, Cashel have scored 85 points plus four goals.
That is an incredible volume of scoring.
Round 1 told us the attack was real.
0-32 against Drom & Inch.
No goals required.
Thirty-two white flags.
Devon Ryan.
Eoghan Connolly.
Oisín O’Donoghue.
Ger Browne.
Conor O’Dwyer.
Ross Bonnar.
Scores everywhere.
Twenty-one points came from play.
The problem was they conceded 0-28.
We came away thinking Cashel were exhilarating but possibly too loose.
Round 2 somehow increased both sides of that argument.
Kiladangan scored 3-22 against them.
Thirty-one point-equivalents.
Cashel hit eighteen wides.
They trailed by seven with five minutes of normal time remaining.
Every rational reading of the game said defeat.
Then Cashel produced one of the moments of the championship.
David McGrath goal.
Oisín O’Donoghue point.
Denis O’Callaghan point.
Devon Ryan free.
Aaron Browne save.
Kiladangan’s lead began to disappear.
Deep into injury time, the ball went forward one final time.
Cathal Quinn.
Overhead flick.
Goal.
3-23 to 3-22.
That victory is the reason Cashel went to No.1 after Round 2.
Not simply because they had won twice.
Because they had demonstrated a trait numbers cannot fully measure.
They refused to accept defeat.
Round 3 presented a strange test.
Top spot already secured.
Roscrea already condemned to relegation.
Dead rubber?
Not remotely.
Cashel were out of the blocks immediately.
Conor O’Dwyer scored after seven seconds.
Devon Ryan followed.
O’Dwyer again.
Ryan again.
Ger Browne again showed his open-play quality.
The first half became another display of attacking volume.
Davy McGrath goaled.
Cashel led 1-19 to 1-13 at half-time.
Nineteen points in thirty minutes.
Roscrea came back.
They reduced the margin.
They threatened.
Then Cashel responded with another six-point burst.
The final score:
Cashel 1-30 Roscrea 3-21.
Another 33 point-equivalents.
Another win.
Another game conceding far too much.
And there is the argument against Cashel.
89 conceded.
Worst defensive total in the championship.
An average of 29.67.
Drom scored 28.
Kiladangan scored 31.
Roscrea scored 30.
No opponent has failed to reach at least 28 against them.
That is extraordinary.
The championship’s best attack is simultaneously the championship’s statistically loosest defence.
It should not work.
So far, it has.
But the margin for error shrinks dramatically now.
You can concede 3-21 to Roscrea and survive when you score 1-30.
Try conceding 30 point-equivalents in a county quarter-final against JK Brackens, Thurles, Kiladangan, Moycarkey, Nenagh, Holycross or Loughmore and see how comfortable the final ten minutes become.
Cashel know that.
Everybody knows that.
The reason they remain No.1 is that their attacking profile is simply unique in this championship.
Devon Ryan has scored 0-26.
Twenty-six points.
Ger Browne has 1-10 overall, essentially all of it through open play.
That is thirteen point-equivalents without needing the frees.
Oisín O’Donoghue has 0-11 overall with ten coming from open play.
Conor O’Dwyer has seven points.
Eoghan Connolly has ten points overall and remains a weapon from distance and placed balls.
Davy McGrath has scored two goals and two points.
Cathal Quinn has a goal and five points, including the goal of their championship so far.
Ross Bonnar contributes.
Shane Neville contributes.
Denis O’Callaghan contributes.
Ronan Connolly contributes.
This is not an attack that can be shut down by marking one man.
There is no single answer.
Take out Devon Ryan and Ger Browne can hurt you.
Close Browne and O’Donoghue appears.
Drop deeper and the Connollys can strike.
Concede frees and Ryan punishes them.
Switch off around the square and McGrath or Quinn can goal.
That is why 97 has happened.
It is not one freak scorer.
It is an ecosystem.
And there is another psychological element now.
Cashel have already beaten Kiladangan twice this year when the Division 1 League Final is included.
They won that league final.
They then beat them again in the county championship.
They have gone three from three in the group.
They have won a shootout.
They have won an injury-time thriller.
They have won a game where both teams already knew their group fate.
Every week has produced a different challenge.
They have answered each one.
Could they defend better?
Absolutely.
They must.
The number 89 cannot simply be brushed away because the attack is brilliant.
There will come a day when the shots do not all go over.
There will come a day when 0-32 becomes 0-25.
There will come a day when eighteen wides actually cost them rather than become a footnote to an extraordinary comeback.
The question is whether Cashel can tighten the defensive end without damaging the freedom that makes the attack so dangerous.
That is the central tactical question of their championship.
But power rankings are about what we know now.
And what we know now is this:
Cashel King Cormacs have played three county championship games.
They have won all three.
They have scored more than anybody.
They have averaged more than 32.
They have survived a seven-point deficit with five minutes remaining.
They possess arguably the deepest spread of scoring in the championship.
And for the second consecutive round, they sit at No.1.
Not because they are flawless.
Far from it.
Because after three rounds, nobody has yet proved capable of surviving the chaos Cashel create.
The Power Rankings After Round 3
So this is where all 16 teams stand after the completion of the group stage:
1. Cashel King Cormacs
2. Thurles Sarsfields
3. Moycarkey-Borris
4. JK Brackens
5. Holycross/Ballycahill
6. Nenagh Éire Óg
7. Kiladangan
8. Borris-Ileigh
9. Loughmore-Castleiney
10. Drom & Inch
11. Kilruane MacDonaghs
12. Toomevara
13. Roscrea
14. Clonoulty/Rossmore
15. CJK Mullinahone
16. Upperchurch-Drombane
The biggest movers from the start
The value of power rankings becomes clearer when you look back at where we started.
Loughmore-Castleiney began at No.1.
They are now No.9.
An eight-place collapse.
Thurles Sarsfields began at No.7.
They are now No.2.
Five places gained.
JK Brackens began at No.8.
They are now No.4.
Four places gained.
Cashel began at No.5.
They are now No.1.
Four places gained.
Borris-Ileigh began at No.13.
They are now No.8.
Five places gained.
Moycarkey-Borris began fourth, briefly slipped to fifth despite winning, and now sit third after completing a perfect group campaign.
That movement tells the story of the championship.
Pre-season reputation is disappearing.
Actual evidence is taking over.
The four group winners
Four teams went three from three.
But they did it in four very different ways.
Cashel King Cormacs: 97 scored, 89 conceded, +8.
Attack everything.
Trust the scoreboard.
Back themselves to outscore whoever is standing opposite them.
Thurles Sarsfields: 85 scored, 68 conceded, +17.
Balance.
Increasing control.
A defence settling around Conor Stakelum and Denis Maher, with an attack growing in variety every week.
Moycarkey-Borris: 72 scored, 60 conceded, +12.
The opposite of Cashel.
Control first.
Best defence in the competition.
Three divisional champions beaten.
No need for huge totals when opponents cannot reach them.
JK Brackens: 90 scored, 70 conceded, +20.
The best mathematical balance.
Seven goals scored.
One conceded.
Thirty points per game.
Best scoring differential.
There is no obvious weak group winner.
And that is what makes the next phase so compelling.
The quarter-final picture
Six teams are already guaranteed places in the last eight.
The four group winners are seeded:
Cashel King Cormacs
Thurles Sarsfields
Moycarkey-Borris
JK Brackens
Two runners-up are already safely through:
Kiladangan
Borris-Ileigh
The remaining two places come from the preliminary quarter-finals.
And neither game looks remotely straightforward.
Loughmore-Castleiney v Holycross/Ballycahill
Saturday, September 5
5.00pm
The Ragg
This is the collision between reputation and emergence.
The defending champions.
Against the young side many believed before the championship could become champions.
Loughmore have scored only 69.
Holycross have conceded only 68.
Loughmore have spent years living in knockout hurling.
Holycross have spent the last two years proving they belong in the conversation.
John McGrath against Cathal Barrett.
The Loughmore half-back experiment.
Darragh Woods’ frees.
Robbie Ryan’s goal threat.
The McGraths.
The Holycross runners.
One team leaves.
Clonoulty/Rossmore v Nenagh Éire Óg
Sunday, September 6
3.30pm
Borrisoleigh
This might be even harder to read.
Clonoulty have conceded seven goals.
Nenagh have scored six.
Clonoulty are incredibly resilient.
Nenagh suddenly look increasingly organised.
Stephen Ferncombe is one of the championship’s leading scorers.
Jake Morris returned with two goals in Round 3.
Jack Ryan gives Clonoulty major threat.
Ben West has three goals from play.
Barry Heffernan is controlling games.
Cathal Bourke gives Clonoulty drive.
And the most extraordinary element remains Clonoulty’s wider position.
Because their West Championship success puts them into this preliminary quarter-final, while their county group finish leaves the possibility of a relegation route hanging over them if their Dan Breen challenge ends.
Only in the Tipperary championship.
The best attack
Cashel.
There is no debate.
97.
But the gap between their attack and defence is what makes them so fascinating.
They have scored 97.
They have conceded 89.
Their three championship games have contained a combined 186 point-equivalents.
That is an average of 62 per match.
If you are watching Cashel, do not leave early.
Something is going to happen.
The best defence
Moycarkey-Borris.
Again, no debate.
60 conceded.
Twenty per game.
That is eight fewer than the next-best defensive total.
The irony is that the championship’s best attack and best defence could not look more different stylistically.
Cashel want a scoreboard race.
Moycarkey want control.
One of the great questions of the knockout stages is what happens if those two worlds collide.
The most balanced team
JK Brackens have the strongest statistical claim.
90 for.
70 against.
+20.
Seven goals scored.
One conceded.
That is elite at both ends.
The only reason they are fourth is the strength of the arguments above them, not any significant flaw in their own campaign.
The team nobody should want
Take your pick.
Kiladangan?
Almost 30 per game, enormous open-play scoring and multiple goal threats.
Loughmore?
Ninth in these rankings, one preliminary win away from everybody suddenly remembering who they are.
Holycross?
Young, fast and now finding a wider spread of scorers.
Nenagh?
Morris back, Heffernan flying and two increasingly convincing victories behind them.
Borris?
Eddie Ryan capable of turning every foul into punishment.
There are no soft routes left.
And now the rankings become real
Power rankings are fun during the group stage because there is always another game to prove them wrong.
From here, the stakes change.
A team ranked fifth can beat a team ranked ninth and everybody says that was expected.
The ninth-ranked team beats the fifth and suddenly the entire championship picture changes.
One bad ten-minute spell can end a season.
One red card can end a season.
One goal can end a season.
One save can create a county final run.
One sideline cut.
One puckout.
One missed free.
One bad handpass.
That is what is coming.
The group stage has given us 24 games of evidence.
It has given us four unbeaten group winners.
It has given us a 97-point-equivalent attack.
A defence conceding only 20 per game.
A scorer sitting on 1-39.
A team with seven goals scored and only one conceded.
A defending champion that went from No.1 to No.9.
A Thurles team rising five places.
A Moycarkey team that has beaten every divisional champion placed in front of them.
And a Cashel side that appears almost completely uninterested in the conventional idea that you have to stop opponents scoring in order to win championship games.
The evidence is now on the table.
The safety of the group stage is gone.
And after three rounds, the FBD Insurance Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship feels less predictable than it did before a ball was thrown in.
Sixteen became ten.
Soon ten becomes eight.
Then four.
Then two.
Then one.
The real Dan Breen Championship starts now.