Kilmoyley bidding to smash the provincial glass ceiling
Kilmoyley captain Flor McCarthy with the cup after the Kerry SHC final win. Picture: Domnick Walsh
Kilmoyley captain Flor McCarthy is fully cognisant of the bigger picture.
The corner-back doesn’t need telling that victory for the North Kerry club in Sunday's Munster IHC final will be felt far beyond Kilmoyley village.
While themselves and Ballyduff both went close in the last decade, no Kerry club has ever been crowned Munster intermediate hurling champions. If history is made at TUS Gaelic Grounds this weekend, there’s no measuring the lift it would give to Kerry hurling as a whole.
From returning to the top tier of Munster competition at both minor and U20 level the past two years to back-to-back Joe McDonagh Cup final appearances, the Kingdom’s hurling graph has been steadily inclining of late.
A Kilmoyley win over Cork opposition would keep the trajectory moving in the right direction.
McCarthy, who featured during the 2016 Munster final defeat to Waterford’s Lismore, said a Kerry hurling club clinching provincial silverware was needed for many reasons, one of which would be to instil confidence in club players when they moved beyond the local championship and on to the Munster stage.
“Kerry teams have been knocking on the door for the last number of years. Just for Kerry hurling in general, a Kerry team needs to break that ceiling with regards winning a Munster intermediate club title. Hopefully we can get the business done on Sunday,” said McCarthy.
“Kerry hurling, over the past five to six years, has come on leaps and bounds; there are a lot of talented young hurlers in the county at present. A lot of the clubs now, if they do get into Munster, they will give a good account of themselves.
“For ourselves on Sunday, we are out to win it but, in the background, if we do get over the line, it will be good for Kerry hurling in helping to bring up the standard and maybe bring a bit of a winning mentality that, if a club from Kerry is going into the Munster championship, they know teams have come before them and done well, and that gives them a confidence then.”
That Kilmoyley downed the Tipperary and Waterford champions to move within one hour of Munster glory and an All-Ireland semi-final appearance has a great deal to do with the stewardship provided by John Meyler.
The former Cork boss has been lending a hand in Kilmoyley, on and off, for the past 21 years, with McCarthy heaping praise on the joint-manager for the improvement he has brought about in the club.
“What can you say about the man that hasn’t already been said? He has been around the block with Kilmoyley since the turn of the millennium, but still has that drive to win. He has won county championships in Kerry and so I think a goal of his is that he’d like to go a step further in Munster.”
They are plenty familiar with him in Courcey Rovers too — Meyler having served as coach during the Cork club’s only previous sojourn in the Munster IHC back in 2011.
He spent a couple more seasons with Courceys following their 2011 county premier intermediate win, and his last campaign coincided with Fergus Lordan’s first season out of the juvenile ranks.
“There would be great respect for John around these parts,” said 24-year-old centre-back Lordan.
“Even my one year under him, I remember him as a great trainer with a great hurling brain.”
Courceys path to the Munster final has been notable for the resilience Sean Guiheen’s charges showed in their county final comeback against Castlelyons and the manner in which they responded during extra time in the Munster semi-final against Mungret St Paul’s after the Limerick side had wiped out their six-point, second-half lead.
“Those two wins, they kinda made us. It shows massive character within the group to keep the belief as we did. In the county final we were eight down and we still thought it wasn’t over; the same as the Mungret game. Looking at it from the sideline, you might have thought Mungret would drive on in extra time, but we kept our heads together and we dug out the win by a point. You just have to keep going, keep driving on. There is no giving up,” Lordan continued.
“Sunday is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we are just looking to put in a performance. All you can do at the end of the day is give it your best shot and see what happens. It might have been dreamed of at the start of the season, but now it is where we actually are. Everybody was happy enough to put aside the usual Christmas and be out training on St Stephen’s morning because it is something great to be looking forward to. It is a great reason to keep it calm at Christmas.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
