Shinrone and K-K hurling final rematch laden with promise

By Kevin Egan

We’ll start by leaving aside all the extraneous stuff, and focus on the game of hurling that is this year’s Offaly senior final between Kilcormac-Killoughey and reigning champions, Shinrone. As a sporting contest, there are so many reasons to look forward to it.

Speaking at the club’s press night last week, Shinrone manager Trevor Fletcher spoke about how important it was for the club to get back to the decider. For the adult players, a second final appearance, and ideally a second win, would forever banish any talk of being one-hit-wonders. For future generations in the parish, it would cement the joy of 2022, and further solidify hurling’s status as an integral part of the DNA of the local community.

For Kilcormac-Killoughey too, there is so much at stake. Three county final defeats in five years have rattled the confidence of a powerful club, and while their underage record this year is utterly impeccable, no title since 2017 is already playing on their mind. Another final defeat would have club officials sleeping as easy as a Paris hotelier in the midst of the city’s current bed bug infestation.

On the field, there are levels upon levels to pore over and examine. Shinrone built a lot of their play around Ciarán Cleary and his gargantuan frame at full-forward last year, but have evolved their game considerably since then, out of necessity. Now the big attacker is back, and available as a potential change of pace – though he may not be needed, given the range of scoring threats Fletcher has at his disposal, and the form of those players.

Kilcormac-Killoughey were always that bit more traditional in style, but Shane Hand would be foolish if he didn’t try to do more to maximise the threat posed by Adam Screeney, particularly when there are other very talented young stars alongside him in the forward line. Cillian Kiely’s move back to centre-back has been a revelation and will surely be watched closely by Johnny Kelly and his selectors on Sunday afternoon, while the option to bring a few more of the Senior B hurlers into the mix will also be a factor, particularly in the final quarter.

Shinrone’s puckout strategy this year has been very successful, but how will it hold up if Kilcormac-Killoughey hold their positions and bring their aerial ability to bear under the dropping ball? How will the smaller playing surface in St Brendan’s Park work out for those players who need significant space to do their best work?

Can Shinrone’s new-found confidence and self-belief trump Kilcormac-Killoughey’s growing list of county final defeats, when this game enters the closing minutes?

Offaly hurling is in a much better place now than a few years ago for a wide variety of reasons, but it’s still been some time since there was a senior hurling final that really caught fire. St Rynagh’s beating Birr in 2016, maybe? One way or another, a showstopping showpiece event is due, and this has all the ingredients to be that game.

Birr GAA pulling out all the stops

Is there a significant element of self-promotion and self-interest at play in the way that Birr have taken this year’s county final and turned it into what they describe as a ‘Festival of Hurling’ with a host of events this week? Almost certainly there is – but there’s still a lot of effort and commitment required to bring something like this about, and the big winners are Offaly hurling supporters.

Fans will get a fantastic occasion to savour on Sunday with a packed house and music beforehand, made all the more exciting by the build-up that is ongoing all week, including preview nights, celebrations of the 1998 team, and much more.

The future of Offaly hurling looks bright, so the last thing that this column would want to do is to go back to the dark ages where different areas of the county felt that they were in competition with each other, manifested most obviously in the St Brendan’s Park versus O’Connor Park debate when it came to big hurling events.

A decade ago, there was little to discuss. The Birr club had significant issues to address with their facilities, and the argument that was being made more loudly than any other was one of tradition, and by extension, entitlement.

Since then, the club has put in a monumental amount of work to bring the ground up to a higher standard, and while there are still some things that need to be addressed, the conversation takes place in a completely different context now.

Birr have gone from arguing what Offaly hurling owed to the club and to the ground, to making a very convincing case for what the club and community can do for Offaly hurling by putting on an incredible show and heightening the profile of our beloved sport.