Christy O'Connor: Can a Doon breakthrough become another bounty?
Cian O'Donovan of Doon is tackled by Mike Foley of Na Piarsaigh. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
By its nature, the scoreboard is often an imposter, never telling the full story of what actually happened, making a pretender out of what did happen. Doesn’t matter - only the teams involved really know, or care, because the final score tells everybody else what appears to have happened.
The scoreboard at the end of the Na Fianna-Kilmacud Crokes Dublin hurling semi-final two weeks ago smacked of the All-Ireland champions scolding the team that could have assumed that status. Crokes were the better side in the 2024 county final, leading for almost the entirety of the match until Na Fianna stole victory when Ciarán Stacey scrambled a goal in the 63rd minute.
After watching Na Fianna go on and win Leinster and the All-Ireland, Crokes spent the year stewing, waiting for their chance to right that wrong. And then they got whipped by 11 points.
That didn’t reflect the real story. Crokes slugged it out with Na Fianna for 50 minutes until the All-Ireland champions decked them with two late haymakers, goals from AJ Murphy and Brian Ryan.
Nailing Kilmacud late on for the second year in succession was satisfying for Na Fianna in the context of the pain Crokes administered to them in the 2021 and 2022 county finals. Yet Na Fianna have the know-how, confidence and savvy that they didn’t have back then, but are bursting with since winning their maiden county title in 2023.
Finally making that breakthrough can infuse teams with the belief and confidence that they’d often lacked as the pretenders desperately trying to over the line. But once they do, they have the capacity to take on a whole new persona.
Everybody has a different view of Na Fianna now, just as they have of Doon since they won their inaugural Limerick senior title last year. Earlier this week, Doon manager Derek McGrath drew comparisons with the De la Salle side he was part of that won their first senior championship in 2008.
“For years before we made the breakthrough in ‘08,” said McGrath, “it was said about us, 'Oh, De La Salle are kind of soft, they'll never make the breakthrough. They're missing something.'”
De la Salle soon found it, going on to win two Munster titles in three years. Na Fianna clearly located that missing ingredient too after their 2023 breakthrough and are now on the cusp of three-in-a-row in Dublin.
After years of heartbreak, especially prior to last year, Doon have a chance on Sunday to win successive Limerick titles when they take on Na Piarsaigh.
After so long trying to break through that glass ceiling, the stats show how common it is for first time champions to smash that ceiling to smithereens. In the history of the club hurling championships, across all 32 counties, 139 clubs have retained their county title the year after making that initial breakthrough.
Some of those clubs grew into traditional behemoths. Glen Rovers followed up their first Cork title in 1934 with eight-in-a-row. After securing their first title in 1927, Erin’s Own razed their way to nine-in-a-row in Waterford. After Castlegar won their maiden senior title in 1936 they secured five-in-a-row in Galway.
As soon as Ballyhale Shamrocks broke through in Kilkenny in 1978, they became an unstoppable force, winning three-in-a-row, six titles in eight years, and turning that bounty into three Leinsters and two All-Irelands. St Rynagh’s won an inaugural Offaly title in 1965 before bagging ten in 12 years.
Strangled with self-doubt after losing three Dublin finals in six years between 2001-’06, Ballyboden St Enda’s were completely liberated when finally winning their first title in 2007, going on to complete a 5-in-a-row. A team that appeared to lack confidence suddenly turned into a machine, winning those five successive titles by an aggregate margin of 50 points.
Killoughey had won three Offaly titles at the turn of the 19th century but when Kilcormac-Killoughey won a first title in 2012, they bagged three-in-a-row, reaching the 2013 All-Ireland final.
Not every first-time winner reacts well to that breakthrough success, for a variety of reasons, but the overall numbers still reflect a huge spread. Despite the historical domination of Mount Sion, Ballygunner and Erin’s Own, who share a colossal 72 titles, Waterford has seen more breakthrough winners retain their title than any other Munster county, with eight; Ballygunner, Erin’s Own, Clonea, Ferrybank, TF Meaghers, St Stephen’s De la Salle, Dunhill, Roanmore.
Limerick and Tipperary have both each had seven breakthrough clubs retain their title. Only Glen Rovers and Imokilly managed it in Cork, while Crusheen are the only breakthrough champions in Clare to have immediately backed up that success, in 2010 and 2011.
The county with the most first-time winners which either retained the title, or won even more is Kildare, with 11; Clane, Castledermot, Naas, Éire Óg Corrachoill, Killinthomas, Confey, Military College, Monasterevin, Broadford, St Conleth’s, St Barbara’s. After their first crown in 1903, Clane won nine-in-a-row.
Burt, the dominant force in Donegal with 40 titles didn’t retain their title when they first won it in 1952. However, when they secured a first Derry championship in 1930 (they used to play across the border), Burt retained it a year later.
Tyrone is the only county that has never seen a breakthrough winner retain their title, but the Carrickmore side that finally arrived in 1974 went on to dominate the championship. Carrickmore are now not top of the roll of honour with 33 titles.
The domination of first-time winners in the modern era though, is more accurately reflected in how they used that success as a springboard to take over their particular championship during that decade, or the following one.
Portumna translated six county titles in 11 years into four All-Irelands. It took St Thomas’ four years to win Galway again after their breakthrough in 2012, which culminated in an All-Ireland, but then they absolutely took over Galway.
Mount Leinster Rangers didn’t win their first Carlow title until 2006 and then they bagged six in eight years, reaching an All-Ireland final in 2014.
One of the most prolific club machines of the last two decades is Na Piarsaigh, who on Sunday are aiming for a ninth Limerick title in 15 years. Na Piarsaigh are favourites but, after finally making the breakthrough last year, Doon will be keen to show that there’s a new law with a new Sherriff in town.
When Burren edged past Carryduff in last year’s Down semi-final, the defeat was even harder for Carryduff to stomach when Ronan Kelly’s late goal was clearly a square ball.
Carryduff were devastated but their manager Finnian Moriarty was even more sickened with how his team coughed up possession before the goal. Carryduff’s second-half performance was pockmarked with poor decision-making and skill execution. On eight occasions when they were trying to work a score around the Burren D, Carryduff lost possession.
"Credit to their defending but our skill level let us down,” said Moriarty. “And we have to live with that.”
It’s been a torturous few years for a talented side desperately trying to win a first Down senior football title.
In only their third season playing at the senior grade, Carryduff reached their first county final in 2020 but were beaten by Kilcoo. A year later en route to winning the All-Ireland title, Kilcoo almost careered off the road in the Down semi-final when only edging past Carryduff by one point after extra-time.
It looked like just a matter of time before Carryduff would be back in another final but they lost in either the quarter-or semi-final over the following three years, to Mayobridge, Kilcoo and Burren by an average margin of just two points.
Kilcoo are still Kilcoo as they chase another title on Sunday, but there has been a different look to Carryduff this season. Against a Burren side that included five Down starters from the team which narrowly lost to Galway in the preliminary quarter-final in July, Carryduff came of age when beating Burren in the semi-final by eight points.
The year before Carryduff reached their first senior final in 2020, a sizeable chunk of that team had claimed a third successive Down U21 title. Six years on, is it time for Carryduff’s golden generation to finally deliver a historic first Down senior title?
When Shinrone won a first Offaly title in 2022, comfortably beating Kilcormac-Killoughey in the final, KK were fuelled by far more than just a sense of retribution in 2023; packed with an incredible generation of talented young players, KK were determined to prove that the 2022 final was just a harsh learning experience along the pathway to what they felt should be their time.
Shinrone felt that wrath in the 2023 final when KK whacked them by 18 points. After retaining their title last year, KK now face Shinrone in a third final in four years on Sunday.
These two sides have formed Offaly’s first big rivalry of this decade and, while KK’s ambitions extend far beyond Offaly, Shinrone are driven to add at least one more county title to their sole crown before their window of opportunity narrows even more in the face of KK’s growing maturity.
KK have the capacity to dominate Offaly for the rest of this decade but Shinrone are equally as pumped to prove that their most successful team is not unlucky to be around at the same time as this KK outfit.
