KILLINAN END - Kilruane delve into their tradition

Bonfires for Dan Breen were a long time coming around Cloughjordan.

Toiling in the Intermediate grade in the early years of the new century had been quite a fall from grace. This was a club which had been a constant flagship presence in the Senior championship as the final decades of the previous century ebbed away. Having come up to Senior again in 2003 it took some thirteen years to be in the shake-up for the Frank McGrath cup – again this was for a club that had been in one of every three North Finals in the latter half of the twentieth century. That day in 2016, though unsuccessful, saw a brand-new rivalry minted. Kilruane and Kiladangan have rarely been far apart since them with three North Finals contested and now a Dan Breen decider and replay.

Of all the games they have played there has never been a period as comprehensive and all-consuming as that second-half Kilruane performance on Sunday. We grew up understanding Kilruane to be the ultimate match players – one of these teams whose strength was, curiously, the lack of weak links as distinct from sprinklings of stardust. Playing schools’ hurling many years ago, a clear recollection is being advised to avoid rows against a school team which featured several Kilruane players. The teacher’s logic was that Kilruane players tended to perform better after a row – more focus, more determination. By contrast, it was argued, we were wilder and more prone to take the eye off the main prize while still in the flush of fire and fury.

Some of that reputed cold-bloodedness in the face of onslaught must have been front and centre in the dressing-room in Semple Stadium last Sunday. At the interval the thoughts of those uncontaminated by bias surely inclined towards the view that yes indeed there was something to the theory that Kilruane had squandered a huge opportunity the first day when they had held the whip hand for much of proceedings. Consistent Kiladangan, with five North Senior titles under the belt and seven final appearances over the past decade, were how heirs apparent at the top table. A club poised, perhaps, to make the next few years theirs, and to repeat the power of their North performances on the biggest stage of all.

The first half could scarcely have gone better early on, and you would not have been disloyal to Kilruane to think that maybe we were just a key score or two away from a match that could drift quickly and decisively away from the team in Black and White. Perhaps that moment was the penalty which would have left a stake in Kilruane hearts at half-time. Five points at the break was challenging – eight might have been leaving the margin for error just a little too narrow. As it transpired none of this mattered. Kiladangan will be devastated at how the game was mercilessly dragged from their grasp with Kilruane starting the second-half as they themselves had started the first – full of controlled fury and killer focus.

Rarely can County final day seen a second-half as devastating in its demonstration of how the trend of a game can be upturned. Older Kilruane followers will recall the ‘thousand cuts’ death against Moneygall in the second-half of the ’75 replay. This one was as comprehensive in its way when you factor in the significance of Kiladangan’s half-time lead. It will seem a long way back from this right now for Kiladangan, but they will remain a powerful force.

From the moment of the Kilruane-Clonoulty game there has been something about this Kilruane team and its resolve. Injuries, setbacks, reasons to quit or take the easy route to honourable defeat were rejected as those old qualities we were told of come through in abundance.

Just one part of a good year for the North of course, with Lorrha deservedly taking the Intermediate title with a good margin over Moneygall. Another of the traditional North powerhouses, Roscrea, now return to the top grade having beaten Gortnahoe-Glengoole in the Premier Intermediate final. That will leave us with seven North teams, seven Mid teams and one from both South and West, Mullinahone and Clonoulty-Rossmore respectively, making up the sixteen teams that will wrestle it out for the Dan Breen cup next year.

There has been a long tradition with the North and Mid as the strongest divisions. Only six County Senior titles in the past half-century have gone outside these two divisions who have taken it in turns to have their periods of ascendancy. In fact, the current time is as vigorous as it has been between them in a long time with this year’s decider an all-North affair, last year’s all-Mid, with the previous year the famous Kiladangan-Loughmore/Castleiney game. Only a brave person would predict with confidence who we will be talking about in twelve months’ time.