K-K boss Laffan embraces great expectations around his team

By Kevin Egan

On the one hand, it’s hard to imagine a more ideal appointment for a team manager than that of taking over Kilcormac-Killoughey at the start of 2025.

It’s doubtful that there is another GAA club in Ireland with the same level of underage talent ready to improve and develop into elite adult hurlers, the club’s facilities are as good as any manager could hope for, there is incredible strength in depth and with two county senior titles in the books in 2023 and 2024, it’s a team with no hang-ups about performing on the big day.

The other side of that coin is that with those ideal conditions comes a huge level of expectation and ambition.

Declan Laffan knows the ropes. He has won county senior hurling titles with his native Loughmore-Castleiney in Tipperary and with Clough-Ballacolla in Laois, and he has brought those teams back as reigning champions and kept them competitive. There’s no danger of Kilcormac-Killoughey getting blinded by the sparkle of bigger trophies down the road when a capable and talented side like Shinrone is lined up to take them on in Sunday’s county final.

But it’s also true to say that there is only one club in Offaly where a county title, followed by a first round exit in Leinster away to the Kilkenny champions, would be seen as a good year, but not a great year.

“I was aware of the expectation, I'm not going to pretend I wasn't,” he admits, speaking to the Offaly Independent in advance of Sunday’s final.

“Ultimately, you have to look after home first and if you get ahead of yourself you’ll get into trouble quickly. Look, we all do it at times, even the most successful managers on occasions will admit that they were looking too far ahead, but we have to focus on the Offaly final and those two 30 or 35 minute halves of hurling. What comes after that, we'll worry about it then.”

“I would say a lot of the expectancy I think is from within. I don't know if it's the same level of expectancy around the rest of the county about this group, and that’s understandable. Ultimately Kilkenny and Dublin are the counties in Leinster where you’ll have to take down their teams if you want to win, and this Kilcormac-Killoughey team hasn’t taken down either,” he continued.

“We’ve it all to do to even get the chance to play a game like that. We hung on in the league final against Shinrone to win by three points, we only drew a couple of weeks ago. Their sweeper system that day really upset us, it took us completely out of our flow and we could never really get to grips with, we just managed to get out with a draw.”

In the last two rounds, Kilcormac-Killoughey have shown against Ballinamere that they can be almost unstoppable, and shown against Birr that the right approach and the right team can cause them plenty of problems.

“We did hurl well that day (against Ballinamere), it was probably our best performance of the year. At the time you're probably going, 'look, we're getting it right now'. The next thing you're caught in a war of attrition and sometimes you don't get out the right side. We were fortunate at times (against Birr) and I won't tell a lie, we were quite disappointed coming away. But when I look back at the stats, they actually don't look bad. It kind of gives almost a slightly different picture to what you thought you'd watched.

“Look, we were out of it for long passages of that game and Birr were very good, they were well-organised, they hurled with intensity and they’re skilled players. But I suppose, maybe a little bit extra quality and know-how with some of the players is probably what got us over the line.”

The other big challenge for Laffan this weekend will be managing the return of certain key players who have missed a lot of time. On the other hand, his recent starting team may have drawn two games and won another by a single point, but they also won three games comprehensively. They will go to Tullamore unbeaten and in great confidence.

Sunday may still be a week or two too soon for Ter Guinan while Cillian Kiely has come back to the side, albeit that may force a reshuffle with Brecon Kavanagh hurling so well at centre back.

“It’s a balancing act, it can upset people,” Laffan says. “But ultimately you're only as strong as the last member of your squad and their attitude. And if their attitude is not bang on, it's going to seep in and you're in trouble straight away.

“So we just have to guard against that and make sure that we are on the one page and hopefully we can go places.”

After being handed the keys to a high-performance vehicle, Laffan now knows that going places is the least that is expected.