Inter-County Championship at Larkspur Park - A Closer Look by John Manning
The National graded Inter-County challenges have a relatively short history but the current score stands at 11-1 to Munster counties.
No Leinster county has yet won the junior title and only Kildare (the 2024 victors) have broken the southern province dominance in intermediate.
Cork sit proudly atop the intermediate Roll of Honour with three wins out of six. Tipperary are now the second county (after Cork) to win the intermediate championship for a second successive year.
Junior winners Cork have now joined 2023 and 2024 champions Kerry as holders of two consecutive successes.
Five players have two winners’ medals. Having contributed to Tipperary’s intermediate two-in-a-row, Sean Minogue and Tim Crowe now emulate Fermoy pair Jimmy Quinn and J.J. Quirke, who figured on the successful 2019 and 2022 Cork intermediate squads and Darren O’Leary who featured in 2022 and in 2023.
With the change in format, Tipperary’s 393 and Cork’s 426 set the target for the lowest respective team aggregates.
Cork now hold five National graded Inter-County titles, three intermediate and two junior. Tipperary have won two intermediate and one junior trophies while Kerry have claimed two junior crowns.
Louth lead the way with three runners-up spots (two intermediate and one junior) while Westmeath (junior twice) and Wexford (one inter and one junior) have finished second on two occasions.
John Minogue joins his father Sean as a National graded Inter-County winner. The Nenagh pair emulate John and Jason Kelly of Carlow by winning a National Inter-County championship together.
Larkspur Park became the first course to host the Inter-County challenge twice.
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