Larkin ready for ‘talented’ students in repeat of last year’s final

IT’S déjà vu all over again, as our American friends like to say, as James Stephens of Kilkenny play UCD, Dublin champions, in a repeat of last year’s final.

Philly Larkin is again centre-back on a James Stephens side that sees only one change in the starting 15 since the All-Ireland club final earlier this year, Joe Murray in at wing-forward for Joe Murphy. Larkin is flanked by Kilkenny stars Peter Barry and Jackie Tyrell, big Martin Phelan anchors the full-back line, Brian McEvoy still roams the plains from midfield, Eoin Larkin is the shooting star at centre-forward, while the McCormack brothers, David and Eoin, continue to do damage in the corners.

Even the students, surprisingly given the annual turnover in any college, remain largely unchanged, 12 or 13 of the likely starting 15 having been involved at some stage in last year’s final - full-backs Dara Walton, Mick Fitzgerald, Eddie Campion, half-backs Eamonn Ryan and Colm Everard, midfielders Bryan Barry and Stephen Lucey, and forwards Pa Morrissey, Brian Phelan, John O’Connor and Brendan Murphy. Then Redmond Barry and Brian Hogan, an impressive Allstar outfit in their own right, all saw action last year.

So what does Philly think of UCD playing in the club championship?

“It will probably keep going ‘til some year they win the All-Ireland, then it will come to a head. I see where the Dublin players are objecting to them being in the championship in Dublin now, so we’ll see what happens there.

“It’s a strange situation, when you can be involved with two clubs in two different counties, I think you should have to choose one or the other. I mean, if they can enter the club championship, why can’t we enter the Fitzgibbon Cup? What if you had all the other college teams in the championship as well, the Garda College in the Tipperary championship, the Galway colleges, Waterford, Carlow? They’re all very strong now in the colleges, sure it would be like another Fitzgibbon Cup eventually; it would be very hard for any normal club to compete with that.

“Either play with the college, or play with your club, that’s the way it should be, I think anyway, but sure there’s nothing we can do about it, it’s a problem for the Dublin County Board; they’re the ones who allow them into the championship in the first place. We just have to play, that’s that. This is just all off-the-field stuff, once you take the field, none of that matters, it’s down to business.”

That would be retaining the Leinster title. Last year, having led at the break by 10 points, The Village only got home by the skin of their teeth, a one-point win, UCD manager Babs Keating complaining bitterly that poor umpiring cost his side the title.

That will surely act as incentive for the students this week.

“If that’s what they want to use, fair play to them,” says Philly, “we’re not thinking about last year, we’re focused on what we have to do this Sunday. They seem to be stronger than last year, beat Oulart last Sunday (in the semi-final), pulled away in the last five minutes, but by all accounts, can hurl even better.

“They’ll probably have Brian Hogan back now too, he was away with the Kilkenny team for the last game. You only have to look at their subs to see how strong they are, they can afford to bring off Brendan Murphy, a senior player with Offaly, and replace him with Redmond Barry. What club side could do that?

“One problem we’ve had, we haven’t been able to train as hard since the county final because of the weather.”

A problem not shared by UCD, with their magnificent facilities.

“It’s a fantastic set-up. But you have to use every advantage you have, if we had access to those kind of facilities, we’d be using them too.”

One advantage James Stephens do have over UCD is they’ve already won this title three times, with a 100% strike rate thereafter in the All-Ireland series, winners in 75/76, 81/82, and 2004/05.

That experience, reckons Philly, should stand to James Stephens. “Winning a title is never easy, especially in Kilkenny. As champions you’re a target for everyone, but I think players have grown this year. We’re winning the tight games now, games we were losing in previous years, won the county a bit easier this year than last.

“We only won the final by a goal, eventually, but we were always in control, a bit stronger than the Shamrocks. Probably the toughest game we had so far this year was against Naomh Eoin in the first round in Leinster (Carlow champions), they could have beat us, ahead of us with four minutes to go.

“We weren’t up properly for that one, weren’t focused, that was probably our problem, but we got it right against Castletown the last day.

“Winning is a habit, it does give you confidence, you expect to win the tight games. They’re all hard, but winning the first one is definitely the toughest, that’s what we found in Kilkenny (they hadn’t won a county since 1981).

“This year now, it was great to win back-to-back titles, but we were probably going a bit better then than we are now, though we picked it up again the last day. We know we’re going to have to pick it up again this Sunday. Whatever people might think of them being in the competition, there’s no doubt they’re a talented side. That’s what we have to focus on, let everything else take care of itself.”