Manager O’Meara lauds Kiladangan’s resilience
By Shane Brophy
Kiladangan weren’t that far away from winning a second county title in 2022 but they came up short. The last part of the jigsaw is always the hardest to find but John O’Meara proved to be it as the Sixmilebridge native, who guided his own club to three Clare titles in the last decade, saw his new charges get over the line in Sunday’s Tipperary final replay.
“Any time you win a championship, in whatever grade, is brilliant because you invest into the group of players you are with, and today is no different,” he began.
“These guys have been on the road a long time. I haven’t reinvented the wheel when I came to Kiladangan, I always said if I could just give them a percent or two.
“There are savage structures out there in the club and savage people involved in it. There is a brilliant coaching team within the group, a super back-room team.
“You don’t always get what you deserve in sport but to be fair to the effort the lads put in this year they got what they deserved today, just about!”
With ten minutes to go, things didn’t look good as Kiladangan fell four points behind as it looked like Thurles had timed their run perfectly, but O’Meara felt his side were prepared all year for what they had to do then.
“If you look back over the course of the year, what they have done is they have showed savage resilience,” he pointed.
“If you go back to the North semi-final against Borris-Ileigh, their backs to the wall down a few fellas (but won). Things didn’t go well for us in the (North) final, we got through the early rounds of the county, okay we took a bad turn against Borris-Ileigh in Nenagh but since the second half of hurling that day we really haven’t looked back.
“We showed resilience here against Holycross when we weren’t playing particularly well, Toomevara was another test and then onwards to the drawn match and today so every single question that has been asked of them to be fair, they have answered and got their rewards today.”
Much of the anticipation in the build-up to the replay was how both teams would set-up, particularly as Ronan Maher was so effective in a sweeper role for Thurles in the drawn game, but for the first half on Sunday, it was man on man to everyone’s surprise and helped the game before the exciting spectacle it was.
“You’ll always see that the replay never follows the pattern of the drawn game,” added the Kiladangan manager.
“The challenge after a drawn game is how quickly can you learn, firstly about yourself, and then about the opposition, and can you do both of them quicker than the opposition.
“Whether we did or not is debatable and after five minutes it looked like Thurles did but even after they got the goal I said to myself that Andy Loughnane was unlucky not to have gotten in for a goal before that.
“I felt we were at a pitch today that we weren’t at in the drawn game, even at six points down after ten minutes I genuinely wasn’t worried as I felt we were creating chances but we were shooting wides, but were in the game.”
He added: “With the way the Thurles backs set-up the last day, we felt we didn’t move the ball around enough, so we did put a focus on using the ball better. We have good hurlers across every line of the field, so it was about getting them to express themselves more today.”
One of those key to the better use of the ball was Willie Connors who started a championship game for the first time since July and the Kiladangan manager lauded his contribution over the course of the two finals.
“There were probably a lot of questions asked two weeks ago when he didn’t start but it has always been about managing Willie’s workload,” O’Meara said.
“He had a very serious injury (ankle) against Borris-Ileigh in the North semi-final, and it has been about getting him back onto the pitch over a period of time. Luckily enough we didn’t need him in the earlier rounds, but we needed him the last day and got 43 minutes out of him, and today it was about getting him in, and he was ready.”
One county title in seven attempts (including the two draws) would have been a poor return for what Kiladangan have brought to senior hurling since their first final in 2016 so creating another positive memory at Semple Stadium was important.
“They have had a lot of bad days here,” O’Meara said of the final losses in 2016, 19 & 22.
“They have left here a lot of times with their heads down, but I do think that for themselves, not so much about winning a second title, but it was about winning this one, they had to win and had to get a result.
“They put the work in from the very first day I met them.”