KILLINAN END - One hour from glory
KILLINAN END
It is a curiosity of the County championship this year, and maybe club hurling in general, how games which should not, on all known form, produce big margins between teams can often amount to mismatches.
Who would have thought that Drom & Inch could squeeze past Borris-Ileigh only to be thoroughly smoked by Borris’ final opponents from last year? Consider even the number of All-Ireland club finals which have been runaways despite battle-hardened and well-tested teams participating. It is another conundrum of modern sport that while there is apparently increased competitiveness margins tend to be bigger than ever in many games. The great paradox here is, presumably, the increased efficiency of teams which ensures that if they get a run on you they will make hay, even if you are, seemingly, defending in a more organised scientific fashion than your team has ever done.
Some of what we have seen has been remarkable. Newport men of battles past must have wondered when they saw their new generation putting Silvermines to the sword as they did in the Séamus Ó Riain cup. They too will regret that the Mulcair’s surge stopped just short of bursting the banks in Semple Stadium having led most of the way against Mullinahone. But talk about being on the right track. The future might just be Purple and Gold.
And how about Seán Treacy’s Patrick Carey hitting 1-17 in a relegation play-off with Ballingarry? It recalls an old story from the 1983 Munster Final at the Gaelic Grounds. Cork were all over Waterford like a bad rash and scores gushed from angles Waterford didn’t even know existed. As Cork’s number 10, Bertie Óg Murphy, stood over yet another free a thick Cork city accent shouted, “throw it over Bertie boy – don’t be embarrassed!” Looks like this Rearcross man doesn’t do embarrassment either.
And swinging across to Lower Ormond, can Mullinahone possibly hope to control the scoring excesses of Lorrha? Killenaule were spoken up as likely winners of the competition but it was Lorrha’s scores which bubbled over on this day as the Southerners became just the latest team to be savaged by the free-scoring men in blue. Interesting to see Brian Hogan at centre-back for Lorrha – opponents will hardly target their centre-forward with puckouts. Then again when a guy called Reddin shows up to play in goal it is probably best to consider other positional options. They are facing some wise old heads in that final in Mullinahone, but their scoring rate suggests they will take stopping.
Will it be a weekend for the Northern lights? If the old saying about needing to lose one to win one counts for anything Kiladangan are well placed. A few years back when greener around the gills they came up short against a Sarsfields’ team then firing on all cylinders as three-in-a-row beckoned. By contrast it was Kiladangan’s first final since Hitler was casting a beady eye on Czechoslovakia. Gut-wrenching as it might have been for them, last years’ experience against Borris-Ileigh will prove invaluable. They will know the feeling of facing into the later stages of a County Final and needing to quarry out resources like never before.
The nature of their opponents guarantees that even unwitting complacency is impossible. Kiladangan tick many of the boxes but Loughmore-Castleiney is the team that never goes away. These teams have long history of course. In 1980 when Kiladangan won the North Intermediate championship they met the Green and Red in the County Final. At the time this rural parish had a history as a football outpost with some signs of hurling vitality in the 1970s. A doughty Kiladangan team was hit by a train that day and within a few years Loughmore-Castleiney were giving as good as they got to a Borris-Ileigh outfit that was a veritable Barcelona of a team - stars everywhere you looked.
They have never looked back. But it could have been even trickier for their opponents. In the course of a long night in Nenagh once upon a time, Mickey Cahill of Sars told us that his family’s farm is in the parish of Loughmore, but their house is in Thurles. Such a tidy corner-back with hands to burn would not have been rejected. Yet they have their own stars and there is hardly a better hurler in Ireland than Noel McGrath. His brother John is more of a niche player in the sense that he is a pure forward, but boy does he fill that role like few others. Yet, it can be argued that while their win over Nenagh was impressive it was built on a great start and fuelled by the loss of two key Nenagh backs as well as Jake Morris’s youthful indiscretion. It would be easy to dismiss the result as just Nenagh inconsistency but that could be to succumb to lazy instincts. Let’s not over-play it – ten points is comprehensive - but there are what we might call extenuating circumstances.
A team with Kiladangan’s recent pedigree will hardly tolerate the flightiness of Lady Luck. They can justifiably feel that the scoring threat from the Mid Tipp team is likely to be more controllable than in their own case. Nine scorers against Drom was impressive and is merely the latest demonstration of a wide range of scoring potential with some earlier games featuring even more flag-raisers.
This club has made remarkable strides in recent decades and come into this one poised to take the ultimate step. Their flag has been planted on all the landmarks in the foothills of this climb including North titles and County Final appearances. That is all old hat now. At this juncture progress is measured in only one form – Paul Flynn’s fingerprints on the Dan Breen at around 3.30pm on Sunday. One hour from hurling immortality. For all who have pulled the Blue and Gold over their heads down the decades by the shores of Lough Derg it is a tantalising prospect.