History and new blood on hurling provincial club finals weekend

One empire has fallen but another dynasty is still establishing itself.

By tomorrow evening we will know the final four for the 2024/25 All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship.

Na Fianna and Kilcormac Killoughey contest the Leinster final on Saturday (live on RTÉ2/Player), followed by Sarsfields against Ballygunner in Munster and Portaferry v Slaughtneil in the Ulster decider on Sunday.

Ballyhale Shamrocks dominated Leinster from 2018-22, winning the first three-in-a-row, and then four, only missing out on a crack at five due to the Covid cancellation in 2020.

They went on to claim the All-Ireland title in three of those four years, Ballygunner denying them what would have been another historic treble in February 2022.

Ballyhale will surely be back - one Henry Shefflin was recently reappointed manager - but they have been squeezed out in Kilkenny the last two seasons.

The team that knocked them out this year, eventual champions Thomastown, were themselves shocked by Westmeath winners Castletown Geoghegan, who in turn were pipped by Kilcormac Killoughey.

In what is a newly democratic championship, the Offaly kingpins take on Na Fianna, of Dublin, who beat Wexford's St Martin's.

The Glasnevin club have thrived on the bigger stage since winning their first county title last year, and are back in the Leinster final having lost by a single point to O'Loughlin Gaels 12 months ago.

Former Tipperary captain Brendan Maher is now a coach with Offaly and has been enjoying watching the competition in the province while keeping tabs on Kilcormac Killoughey's senior panellists: Cillian Kiely (just back from a thumb injury) Charlie Mitchell, Colin Spain and Adam Screeney.

"It has been great to watch the games in Leinster," Maher tells RTÉ