Talking points: Port gear up for another crack at Kilmacud, big guns clash in Munster
GIFTED: Kilmacud Crokes’ Shane Walsh has been in stellar form on his new club's march. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane
On the Wednesday night before the 1996 Leinster hurling final, Liam Griffin, the Wexford manager was flicking through the TV channels when he came across a programme featuring Alain Mimoun. The great French athlete was in his 80s by then but the story he related to his interviewer encapsulated much of the struggle of his career.
Mimoun was a contemporary of the brilliant Czech runner Emil Zatopek, who consistently beat the French man. At the 1948 Olympics and twice at the 1952 games, Mimoun had come second to Zatopek. The results had been the same at two World Championships. Zatopek had won three gold medals at the 1952 Games, the last of which came in the marathon.
By the time of the Melbourne Games in 1956, Mimoun decided that the marathon would be where he would conduct his last great battle with Zatopek, even though he had never attempted a marathon before. On the day, Mimoun was inspired; at the finish line, he was over a minute ahead of his nearest pursuer.
When Griffin watched the programme, a light-bulb went off in his head. “I thought, all of a sudden, this story was a divine inspiration,” recalled Griffin in Denis Walsh’s book ‘Hurling: The Revolution Years’.
“We can do this, I said to myself. We are the Mimouns of hurling. Offaly have beaten us every time but this is the chance to get the ghosts off our backs and be somebody. And if we don’t we’ll forever be in the shadows. So I told the players the story of Mimoun.”
Wexford finally overcame Offaly that Sunday to win a first Leinster title in 28 years. When Ballygunner finally won a first Munster club title in 17 years in 2018, they finally took down their Zatopek – Na Piarsaigh.
In the seven previous years, the sides had met on three occasions (two finals and a semi-final) and Na Piarsaigh won each time. The Limerick side were unbackable favourites to beat Ballygunner again in that 2018 Munster final. Still hurting from having lost the 2017-’18 All-Ireland final replay to Cuala just eight months earlier, Na Piarsaigh looked to have even more poison in their bite when demolishing Clonoulty-Rossmore in the semi-final by 18 points.
For most of the last decade, Na Piarsaigh were the higher standard that Ballygunner and every other club in Munster had to try and surpass. And that process-mindset governed their attempt to finally beat them in 2018 - keep trying, keep getting better, the opposition is really you. And the team in the other corner is just a way of measuring yourself.
Eventually, Ballygunner out-ran their Zatopek, beating them by six points. It was a huge watershed moment for that Ballygunner side, who have since only lost two games outside of Waterford in the intervening four years – the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final to Ballyhale Shamrocks, and the 2019-20 Munster final to Borris-Ileigh.
All of a sudden now though, the hunters have become the hunted. The last time Na Piarsaigh played in Munster was that 2018 final as there wasn’t any provincial championship in 2020. In fact, it was the only game Na Piarsaigh ever lost in Munster during their five campaigns between 2011-’18.
Now that Ballygunner are the All-Ireland champions coming into their backyard, Na Piarsaigh will see this as the ideal opportunity to exact the ultimate retribution. And, metaphorically, for Zatopek to beat Mimoun again.
Shortly after Kilmacud Crokes beat Naas two weeks ago, Robbie Brennan, the Kilmacud manager, was already talking about their semi-final opponents Portarlington. Brennan wasn’t drumming out the usual clichés either because, outside of Kilcoo, no team pushed Kilmacud harder last year than Port.
“No disrespect to Naas but I thought they (Portarlington) were the best team we played in Leinster last year,” said Brennan.
“They have a serious attacking threat and a beautiful style of play. They are athletic and Croke Park will suit them. We’ll have our work cut out for us.”
Outside of the Laois semi-final against Portlaoise, when Portarlington needed a superb save from Scott Osbourne with the last play, Portarlington have been shooting the lights out for the last three years. They won the last three Laois finals by an aggregate margin of 37 points. Port hammered Palatine from Carlow in the Leinster quarter-final by 19 points.
When they met Kilmacud last year, Port led by five points early in the second half until Crokes finally arrested the momentum with a goal from Cian O’Connor in the third quarter. That was Portarlington's first ever Leinster club semi-final, and their first time in Croke Park, so they look better equipped to play their expansive style at Headquarters now.
They’ve largely been operating with the same team for the last couple of years but they’ve still never had all their top players at the same time. Midfielder and captain Keith Bracken has missed the last two games with injury and suspension. Jason Moore, an excellent half-back, missed last year due to overseas duty with the army but he is back now. Paddy O’Sullivan also missed 2020 because he was overseas. Midfielder Seán Byrne went travelling at the end of last season and only returned since the Laois quarter-final. Exceptional in last year’s Leinster club, Byrne is still trying to recapture that form.
David Murphy was brilliant last year but he briefly retired afterwards before coming back during the knockout stages in Laois and has blended straight back in as a lethal attacking threat. Robbie Piggott, who plays with Laois, went to Chicago for the summer and is just about getting back to the high standards he has set.
So are Port better set up now to take down Kilmacud? Darragh Galvin and Darragh Slevin are two talented young players who weren’t involved last year for various reasons. The other potential big difference from last year’s semi-final is Osbourne – he carried a groin injury into that game and Crokes really turned the screw on his kickouts when it became apparent the goalkeeper couldn’t kick the ball long.
This is a big ask - but if any team is capable of taking out Kilmacud in Leinster, it’s Port.
When St Thomas’ appeared in their first county final ten years ago against Loughrea, it was the classic meeting of a talented team of young guns going up against a seasoned bunch of warriors.
It was all new to St Thomas’ whereas Loughrea were appearing in a sixth county final in ten years. Loughrea had only won one of those previous five finals but they definitely had an edge on St Thomas’ because they were rookies compared to the mature sides Loughrea had consistently come up short against; Loughrea lost three of those finals to a Portumna side that established themselves as one of the best in the history of the All-Ireland club championship.
Portumna hammered Loughrea in the 2009 final by 18 points but the defeat to Clarinbridge a year later was even more painful as Loughrea let a commanding lead slip late on in the replay before losing the match in extra-time. And Clarinbridge went on and won the All-Ireland. A year later, Loughrea lost another final to Portumna, with Portumna going on to win another All-Ireland.
A decade on and the whole landscape has been radically altered in Galway. St Thomas’ have established themselves as a modern superpower, having won six of the last ten titles, and are now aiming to win five-in-a-row, something which has only been achieved by two clubs in the past, Castlegar and Turloughmore.
The Galway club championship has remained very competitive, but Thomas’s have still had it in a headlock. Pulling from a small area in south Galway, the club profited from a gifted generation of players, families of hurlers and lifelong friends. They were also blessed by a freakish cycle of nature, with the Burke family providing the glorious bounty.
St Thomas’ know that the well will run dry soon, but they have still continued to defy the numbers game by consistently regenerating the team.
Loughrea have four survivors from that 2012 final – Johnny Coen, Neil Keary, Jamie Ryan and Paul Hoban – but a young squad has been impressive since winning the league title in June when they beat Turloughmore in the final. Loughrea have been unbeaten ever since in the championship with seven wins from seven, clocking up an impressive tally of 11-140.
Their management team is also loaded with inter-county experience. Greg Kennedy was Mattie Kenny’s right-hand man with Cuala and Dublin, while Gavin Keary coached Clare in 2018 and 2019 before working with Kenny in Dublin between 2020-’22.
The Loughrea manager Tommy Kelly was also involved with Kenny in Dublin and Cuala, while he was also part of the Clare backroom team under Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor in 2018-’19. Shane Cusack and Nigel Murray were also part of All-Ireland minor winning set-ups with Galway too in recent years.
Loughrea are trying to win a third county title, with their only two previous wins having come in 1941 and 2006. The last time these sides met at this stage, Loughrea’s experience in finals was expected to be decisive, but this generation of Thomas’ players have continued to defy tradition and the odds. All the final experience now is with St Thomas’, who have never lost a county final.
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