Kiladangan looking for spark to down Drom

GAA: FBD Insurance County Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Finals Preview

By Shane Brophy

Drom & Inch v Kiladangan

FBD Semple Stadium

Sunday 9th October

Throw-in @ 3.45pm (E.T.)

Referee: John Dooley

The general feeling among the GAA fraternity is the winner of the 2022 County Senior Hurling Championship will come from this semi-final between Drom & Inch and Kiladangan but both sides were playing that down ahead of Sunday’s game.

Kiladangan are the only team left standing with recent championship winning experience, having won it in 2020. Nothing will take that away but to be validated as a great team you need to win it more than once and that should be their focus and of the teams left standing, at their best they are the strongest.

However, their performance level in recent games has been down on their best, something selector Sean O’Meara alluded to following their quarter final win over Clonoulty/Rossmore.

“There is a lot of stuff we have to go work on to get ready for a semi-final,” he admitted.

“We have been saying all year that if we can put sixty minutes together of what we are capable of, you’ll be very much in contention at this time of the year. We are not doing that.”

To be at the semi-final stage without having hit peak performance is every team’s dream, provided the levels improve and that is what Kiladangan will be hoping for. They need to rediscover the energy and verve which was their calling card over the last decade.

They are a very experienced team, but far from old. However, they are playing a like a team with miles on the clock. They aren’t moving the ball with the off-the-ball runners as they were doing at their peak two years ago when they won the county title.

On route to that success, they defeated next Sunday’s semi-final opponents Drom & Inch twice, including a 1-21 to 0-9 win at the same stage in 2020. However, the Mid side are a different beast.

“We played them during the league, and they beat us fairly and squarely,” O’Meara added.

“In every line of the field they have guys that wore the blue and gold jersey at some level. They have a lot of experience and a lot of young guys coming through, plus guys on the bench, which we have as well so it will make for an interesting semi-final.”

When you look through that Drom & Inch team that was heavily defeated by Kiladangan two years ago, there isn’t much change as it contained twelve of the side that started in the quarter final win over Loughmore/Castleiney.

Drom have been the form side in the county championship group stages so far, taking the scalps of Thurles Sarsfields, Borris-Ileigh and most recently ending the reign of champions Loughmore, but not with a performance that please manager Paul Collins.

“Looking back on it, we weren’t happy with our performance,” he said.

“But we have to offset that against the opposition and the quality of Loughmore, they are county champions and fought to the bitter end.

“But that performance will be nowhere near good enough against Kiladangan. They are incredibly tough opposition. We need to have a high-performance level to have a chance against Kiladangan.

“In a lot of people’s eyes, they are the favourites. Outside of last year they have been in the previous two county finals and lost a close semi-final to Thurles Sarsfields last year. They are top class opposition, and we’ll have to be at the top of our performance level to come near them.

Verdict

Semi-finals are for winning and neither Drom or Kiladangan will care how they achieve it as long as they are planning for a return trip to Semple Stadium on October 23rd.

A concern for Kiladangan is when the quarter final against Clonoulty was a game for the first nineteen minutes, they struggled with the energy and athleticism of the West Tipp side, and one thing this Drom team bring in spades is hard running, particularly from the half back line where Fintan Purcell and Podge Campion have been particularly impressive.

They are an experienced side, despite being one that has underachieved in recent years, but they so have county final winning experience in the likes of Seamus Callanan, Johnny Ryan, and David Collins from 2011.

Kiladangan might opt to try and go back to basics to get motoring, bringing out Willie Connors from corner forward to a central area to get him more into the game, while Paul Flynn might we best served starting at full forward to get him going as if he finds his best form, he will bring the likes of Bryan McLoughney, Sean Hayes, and Billy Seymour with him.

Kiladangan’s positive results this year have largely being built on their strong defence and they will need that again and more to slow down a potentially powerful Drom attack. Verdict: Drom & Inch