Can Shinrone halt K-K’s drive to build a dynasty of dominance?
By Kevin Egan
When it comes to county finals that will go down as memorable occasions and special events, Offaly supporters have been somewhat spoiled this decade.
There were two county senior hurling finals played in the summer of 2021, then 2022 was the Shinrone breakthrough, followed by the return of the county final to St Brendan’s Park in 2023. Regardless of the politics involved, what can be said without equivocation or debate is that the Birr club pulled out all the stops to deliver a wonderful event with all the trimmings, and the blame can hardly be laid at their doorstep for the fact that the final was one-sided.
Ballinamere’s emergence as a force added real lustre to the 2024 decider, and for all their inexperience of the big day, Niall Rigney’s side stepped up to the mark in a game that offered plenty of quality in spite of the bad weather, before eventually falling just short.
As an occasion, Sunday’s final in Tullamore (throw-in 1pm) might struggle to compete. It’s not a novel pairing as Kilcormac-Killoughey and Shinrone prepare to meet for the third time in four years, while the presence of the TG4 cameras is unlikely to do anything for the attendance, with neutral supporters having the option of staying home and watching it from the comfort of their couch with the fire blazing.
Allied to that will be a nagging feeling that if Kilcormac-Killoughey show up like they did against Ballinamere, Shinrone will struggle to compete.
These two clubs might be evenly-poised with one win each in the two finals that were played between them, but the K-K ‘Class of 2005’ were ineligible to hurl in the 2022 final. Admittedly, just two of those players (Adam Screeney and Brecon Kavanagh) took part in the 2023 final, but those two alone were a significant addition and since then, many more of those players that were in their last year of U-20 this year have made the step up.
Shinrone, however much they might wish it to be otherwise, run the risk of being perceived as a team that came along in between the decline of an excellent St Rynagh’s team and the emergence of a Kilcormac-Killoughey dynasty and that captured lightning in a bottle at just the right time.
They hit on a manager in Trevor Fletcher that got them through the psychological hurdles that had tripped them up in quarter and semi-finals so many times, and even their most ardent fans would admit they rode their luck in the 2022 semi-final against Belmont.
This year Shinrone can prove that, firstly, they can back that win up with a second title, captured against a Kilcormac-Killoughey side operating pretty close to the peak of their powers; and secondly, that they can win with Shinrone men at the helm of operations.
Kilcormac-Killoughey will go into Sunday’s final aiming to win the Seán Robbins Cup for the seventh time, but how they go in attempting to do so could have a huge bearing on the championship in the next few years and beyond.
A comfortable victory on Sunday and they will force Shinrone to go back and do some more soul-searching, while potentially sending out a message to the rest of the county that they are poised to power on and leave everyone else in their slipstream, backed by players that have won yet more U-20 and minor medals this year.
On the other hand, if Kilcormac-Killoughey let this game slip, they will have given oxygen to a talented group of Shinrone hurlers who themselves don’t look like a team that are going to go anywhere anytime soon. As finals go, it’s not showbiz, but it will have a huge bearing on the club hurling landscape in this county for the remainder of the decade.