Screeney expects ‘amazing’ occasion as K-K seek atonement

By Kevin Egan

They’re not the broadest of shoulders, and yet they carry so much.

Readers of the Offaly Independent don’t need to recount the journey that Offaly hurling travelled from 2000, when the minors and U-21s won Leinster titles and Pat Fleury’s seniors knocked over the All-Ireland champions from Cork in the semi-final, up to 20 years later.

On the club front, there were good times. Birr had a few more glory days, and both Coolderry and Kilcormac-Killoughey also got to Croke Park in successive years, albeit without completing the last leg of their journey as they would have wished. But at county level, there’s nothing to say except that it was hard going, in the main.

That was until 2022, when the county’s minors made a historic breakthrough in Leinster and then came agonisingly close to beating Tipperary in an incredible final at Nowlan Park. Fast forward to this year, and many of those minors stepped up to U-20, where they captured the hearts and minds of the nation with wins over Dublin, Galway and Wexford, before losing out to Cork in the decider.

Through all that, the talisman in both teams was Adam Screeney. In an era of intense physicality and power, he has the stature of a Go Games participant who got lost and wandered into the adult dressing room, but his incredible gifts have made him the lightning rod for an entire county’s hopes and dreams.

As the 2022 Minor Hurler of the Year, his potential was clear to see – but the manner in which he captivated hurling supporters far and wide with his incredible performance in Carlow in the Leinster U-20 final took the relationship to whole new level.

Offaly people travelled south en masse for this game, and Screeney rewarded them with a personal haul of 1-12 in Offaly’s 1-20 to 0-21 win over Wexford, including some truly incredible scores.

“When we got to Carlow that day, a huge crowd was there already when we went for a walkaround, and the whole thing was absolutely incredible. I suppose Offaly hadn’t really had much success since 2000 so the joy to bring to the Offaly people and even just to participate in that event was amazing,” he recalls.

Screeney, who started in the University of Limerick this year, quickly became an online sensation. His goal, and two incredible points from the sideline in the first half, were all over social media.

“It was amazing. I was like, why are people posting this? Some of the scores were nice but it’s actually quite weird looking at yourself on TikTok and wondering why people are doing this. Then the end of the day when they meet you you’re not that good!”

The next step for the group was an All-Ireland final meeting with Cork, and while Screeney and his colleagues made an explosive start to the day, they were eventually over-run by Ben O’Connor’s Rebels, who had no shortage of hurling, but who also had plenty of heft and power to back it up.

There were grumblings in Offaly about Cork’s approach to that game, but the mercurial corner-forward, who was fouled several times, took a different view.

“It was always a part of my game that I was smaller than everyone else, so I had to make adaptations, and you understand that people will target you” he said.

“Cork knew where our weak point was. They were a strong, physical team and we weren’t, there’s ten of us underage next year from the fifteen. I presume if Offaly were in their shoes we would do the same thing. They just had their game plan right.

“There were lessons we’ll take on board for that team going forward. They knew that we had two big scorers in the forward line, and they won’t just go and let them get their scores. They’d pull you down, get a different lad to pull you down every time, take the yellows. Offaly have to learn from it, because it is part of the game now.”

The parallels with his status in his club, Kilcormac-Killoughey, are quite similar. That Offaly U-20 team draws heavily on players from the club, with six All-Ireland final starters available for selection for ‘The Double Ks’ in this Sunday’s Offaly SHC final at St Brendan’s Park.

Three of them – Screeney, Colin Spain and Charlie Mitchell – will likely make up the full-forward line on Sunday, as Kilcormac-Killoughey hope to avenge last year’s final defeat to Shinrone, and to arrest a run of three consecutive final defeats in 2018, 2020 and last year.

Needless to say, Screeney has got plenty of attention from opposition defences and while he’s scored well with 1-37 so far, just 1-7 of that has been from open play. That hasn’t stopped people from around the club pinning their hopes on their petite paladin.

“It isn’t that easy to just push on and be the saviours of Offaly hurling and it’s the same in Kilcormac-Killoughey,” he says.

“You could have lads travelling, you could have lads developing differently. You just don’t know what could happen, you could have bad injuries. Obviously you’d hope to reach expectations.

“I would confidently say that I will probably be more nervous for this game than I was for the All-Ireland final against Cork. Hurling with your club mates, including some older players that you’ve never really hurled with before this year, it’s going to be a different atmosphere. There’s expected to be a capacity crowd, mainly Offaly people but some coming in for the occasion. Club versus club, a real rivalry after last year’s final, it’s going to be an amazing experience.”

Kilcormac-Killoughey supporters will head to Birr on Sunday in hope that Adam Screeney takes one more step towards becoming the player that they want, crave, and need him to be.