Picking the team ‘a nightmare’ admits K-K boss

Kevin Egan

Aside from the undoubted quality of an up-and-coming Ballinamere side that is packed full of county senior stars, it’s hard to pick out potential hazards for Kilcormac-Killoughey this week.

In terms of form and quality, Shane Hand’s side couldn’t be in a better place. Cillian Kiely’s thumb injury is a huge concern and the participation of the Joe McDonagh Cup All-Star is very much in doubt. But there is no club in Offaly, and probably very few anywhere, with such a panel comparable to that which Hand oversees at training in Mountbolus every week.

The youth of the panel means that the bulk of the group still have to build up their medal collection, and the older lads know what it’s like to lose three finals in five years, so they too will be on their guard.

The only other potential hazard is the chatter around the province of Leinster that if O’Loughlin Gaels are to be beaten, then the reigning Seán Robbins Cup holders are the team most likely to do it.

As you might expect, Hand is quick to shut down that kind of talk this week.

“Every year we set up, we don’t think any further than Offaly. Someone asked me what the draw for the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship and I didn’t know,” he said.

“We hear all this Leinster talk and talk of All-Irelands, but it’s not coming from our camp, we know better than that. To win your own championship is the priority, and absolutely we would love to win a Leinster but the competition out there is huge,” he said, pointing to "top class teams" in the province.

The competition on the Kilcormac-Killoughey training ground is pretty stiff too. “We do the best we can,” is how Hand describes the situation.

“There are lads who started the Senior ‘B’ final that weren’t happy. Lads who don’t start (on Sunday) probably won’t be happy. Picking a team is a nightmare.

“The younger lads, in fairness, have probably taken the chance quicker than we thought ourselves a couple of years ago. Then we see the likes of Enda (Grogan) didn’t start the last day, he would definitely start for every other team in the county. It is hard to tell the likes of Enda especially that he is not starting, considering what he has done for the club. Last year he was absolutely brilliant in the final and he found himself on the bench for the semi-final. Probably the worst 15, 20 minutes of any championship match is the Friday before, telling lads they are not starting.”

It wasn’t always this way. “When the boys made the breakthrough (in 2012) they were probably working off 17 players for three, four or five years with no-one really pushing to make the breakthrough. It is different now, training is very competitive.

!My job is made very easy because we have Sean Sweeney and Tony Gleeson. Sean Sweeney has been there and done that for the last 20 years and he has the boys in great nick. Tony Gleeson in my eyes is as good a coach as what is out there. We see what he brought to the Offaly U-20s this year and in my opinion he was a huge reason why they won the All-Ireland. He’s just a brilliant hurling coach.”

With plenty of hurling ability on both sides, Hand is in no doubt what will decide Sunday’s game.

“I often hear people say we took the 2022 final for granted but we didn’t take anything for granted against Shinrone, we were just outworked and outhurled that day.

“We learned a lot of hard lessons. We probably showed last year the lessons we learned because we knew we had been outworked the year before. I think we outworked Shinrone last year and it will probably come down to that again. Whoever has the highest workrate will come out on top.”