THIS AFTERNOON, BALLYHALE Shamrocks will look to win their seventh AIB All-Ireland club hurling semi-final in eight attempts when they take on surprise Galway champions Gort in a game that will now take place in O’Connor Park, Tullamore.
With a star-studded line-up that includes Henry Shefflin, Cha Fitzpatrick, Michael and Colin Fennelly and TJ Reid, the Kilkenny side boast no shortage of big-game winners.
But if Shamrocks have a last minute free to book their place in the Tommy Moore Cup decider, it is likely to be Reid charged with the task of finding the target as both club and county continue to prepare for life after the King.
“In the league last year Henry was on them. He started off on the frees and then Brian [Cody] asked me, Henry was injured for a game, and Brian came and asked me ‘how are you fixed for the frees?’
“I said, ‘sure I’ll give them a go’ and he said ‘if you don’t feel comfortable, there’s plenty of other players in there that’ll take frees’ but I said I’d give them a go.
“So we were training on the Friday and playing on the Sunday and I went practising, making sure my eye was in because I haven’t been taking frees because Henry was doing it for the club and the county for a few years.
“I got a few lessons off Henry and I was lucky enough, the frees went fairly consistently and who knows what Brian is thinking but obviously he was looking for a second free-taker in case Henry got injured so I was going well on them and maybe that’s the reason he kept me on them.
“If I missed a few of them in a few games he could have taken me off them and put Henry back on them, who knows? At the moment the frees are going fairly well for me and hopefully that’ll continue.
And Reid, who has won two All-Ireland club titles alongside Shefflin, can’t help but marvel at how different things are now from the time the pair first went out on the field with a bag of balls after training.
“We always stay behind in training and I remember when I was a young lad I used to puck the balls back to Henry when he was taking the frees and now I’m taking the frees and Henry is hitting them back to me.
“A bit of a change so it is.
“Henry wouldn’t be annoyed with me taking the frees. You would learn from Henry on how to take them. If it was a wet day he would have a little word in your ear because how to take frees in the rain is different to a summer’s day so Henry is very good that way in fairness to him.”
Of course, the weather has played its part this weekend too with Semple Stadium failing a pitch inspection during the week but today’s opponents are as much of a surprise to Reid as the new venue.
“We’ve had our run-ins with Portumna over the years, serious team so it must have taken a serious effort for Gort to have beaten Portuma.
“I watched the county final. I thought Gort showed more hunger on the day, their work-rate to win that dirty ball, this time of year to win that dirty ball is more important than scoring.
“They are good so as a team we will have to sit down and watch Gort closely because we wouldn’t know them as well as we would know Portumna.”
