Castleblayney HC v Dunnamaggin (Kilkenny): Croke Park: Sunday February 10th @12.30pm.

It may be virgin territory for both clubs but for Castleblayney it is an opportunity to write a whole new chapter in their illustrious history as they contest an All Ireland club final for the first time.

It is an unique occasion for each and every member of the Castleblayney squad in that they will tread the hallowed turf of Croke Park, the scene of so many epic
battles at club and county level, but team manager Jimmy Lacey is keen to keep that in context. "Look, it isn't just about the occasion, although there is a great ring to it when you think of it in terms of an All-Ireland final, but we have been stressing to the lads, and indeed to everyone that we are not just there to take part or to make up the numbers, but rather that we are going up the road win it. That has to be the aim of course, and that's what we are all striving towards and when we finalise our preparations now hopefully we will give a good account of ourselves".

The Castleblayney manager knows that they are up against strong opposition and that is further underlined by the fact that three of the last six All Ireland Junior club finals have been won by Kilkenny clubs and they also have in their ranks players with Leinster and All Ireland senior hurling championship medals.

"We are up against the champions of Kilkenny and Leinster, so Jimmy Lacey was under no illusions as to what they face. "We obviously know a bit about them, when you look at the team sheet and you see Noel Hickey at full-back, you know you have a good team coming up. Being from Kilkenny, I would know a couple of the other names well, one of the backs, William Phelan, he would have played for Kilkenny as well.

Then there are a couple of younger lads that we have talked about who have come in and who won an under 21B championship with Kilkenny a couple of years ago, so we
are under no illusions as to the standard of the team we are coming up against. We have a fair idea of what they are like, but as we've done every game so far, it's up to us to concentrate on ourselves and try and get the best possible performance out of ourselves and hopefully that will be enough, but we will need to bring our "A" game and play for the full sixty minutes, something we haven't done in our games so far but we have it in us, its a matter of producing it on the day".

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