Opportunity knocks for Kilcormac-Killoughey

KEVIN EGAN COLUMN

Will Kilcormac-Killoughey get more chances to win a Leinster club championship title over the course of the rest of the decade? Almost certainly.

Will they get a better chance than the one that lies in front of them right now? That’s debatable.

It’s all very well to say that the age profile of the team is such that they can only get better, and logically speaking, that’s likely to be the case. There are experienced leaders on the team, the Conor Mahons, James Gormans and Damien Kilmartin-type figures, who won’t be involved in five or six years’ time, but there are plenty of good underage teams coming up behind them, in particular this year’s U15 vintage, who will supply plenty of quality to the senior team in due course too.

Looking around Leinster as a province, there aren’t many clubs – probably none outside of Kilkenny City, and at a push, Naas – that have their groundwork so well done for the next decade. All that said, there are plenty of pitfalls ahead, some within the club, some outside the club but within the sport of hurling, and some outside the GAA entirely, that could derail their mission.

When St Rynagh’s and Birr were going through their periods of dominance in Offaly and turning that success into Leinster provincial honours, and even when Kinnitty were a force in Leinster in the 1980s, albeit without ever actually getting their hands on the O’Neill Cup, these teams came through fiercely competitive domestic championships. Looking at the scene all across Offaly right now, there is no guarantee that a strong challenge will emerge in the same way that clubs like St Rynagh’s and Seir Kieran helped push that outstanding Birr team to brand new heights.

In the same vein, if Offaly doesn’t get out of the Joe McDonagh Cup and re-establish itself as a consistent Leinster championship county, will that put a ceiling on how far these young players can develop? And above all, will Irish society pull itself together to the point that staying in the country and putting down real roots in a rural community becomes a viable option for the significant cohort of players in the club that are currently in college, or just entering the workforce?

On the hurling front, tomorrow’s test against O’Loughlin Gaels is a huge one, but it’s not insurmountable. The presence of Huw Lawlor and Mikey Butler would be a huge problem if Kilcormac-Killoughey were heavily dependent on a few key players for scores, but it’s impossible to imagine Lawlor departing his usual role on the edge of the square, and whether Butler chooses to pick up Adam Screeney or Charlie Mitchell, that still leaves plenty of other threats.

Conor Mahon getting some change out of Paddy Deegan is crucial to the team’s cause, but that’s not an unrealistic ambition, while at the other end of the field, O’Loughlin’s themselves have a wide range of scorers, but no single player that K-K would have to double mark, thus causing an imbalance elsewhere.

There’s no such thing as an easy Leinster championship and 2023 is no exception, but with momentum behind them, home advantage on their side tomorrow and what looks like a full panel to choose from, K-K have a glorious opportunity to do something special now, as opposed to waiting for things to happen organically in the years ahead.