Brian Hogan: 'I'd be lying if I said we sat down and said this was going to happen'
MASTERPLAN: O'Loughlin Gaels manager Brian Hogan celebrates with his son Jack Hogan aged 10. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Ken Sutton
A year to the day since Brian Hogan convened his new O'Loughlin Gaels management team for their first meeting, they are celebrating Leinster club success.
The seven-time All-Ireland medallist with Kilkenny revealed that today's thrilling one-point win over Na Fianna marked the one-year anniversary of them unfolding their managerial masterplan.
Hogan took over at a particularly difficult time in the club's history following a Round 1 Kilkenny county championship loss to Mullinavat.
At that stage, nobody was talking about a rapid ascent to the summit of Leinster, rather how they could possibly make up some of the ground between them and the dominant local outfit Ballyhale Shamrocks.
"No," smiled Hogan when asked if he saw this coming. "In one respect, I'd be lying if I said we sat down and said this was going to happen. But we always felt we could get out of Kilkenny and you don't know what could happen after that.
"Obviously the Shamrocks have been the standard bearers that way, at club level in Kilkenny and at national level. For us, really it was about getting back into the mix in Kilkenny and competing for a county title first and foremost. That was our initial goal.
"Obviously having achieved that then it was about enjoying the experience from the players' perspective but then putting the challenge to them in terms of what's next? Is that it or do they want to achieve more?
"That this is their team, we've all had our chance, we've done what we've done, that is all done and dusted, so this is their opportunity to make their mark.
"To be fair to them, they've been very clear in terms of what they wanted to do. A couple of players have made sacrifices along the way to ensure that they can be in a position to compete at this stage of the year.
"Look, it was just about having a conversation with them and once we agreed that, okay, 'This is what yee want to do as a group of players', then it was a case of, right, we go and we do it and we see where it takes us."
O'Loughlin Gaels will be strong favourites to win their All-Ireland semi-final in a fortnight against the Ulster champions, Slaughtneil or Cushendall. It remains to be seen where that game is played though Croke Park appears unlikely with ladies football and camogie fixtures pencilled in for that weekend of December 16/17.
"I think if we get to play here again, the surface is good," said Hogan of Croke Park. "The surface in pretty much every other pitch in the country is not great.
"The groundsmen are doing the best they can but with the frost that was there this morning and last night, the rain that's after falling over the last couple of months, it's a completely different type of game on those pitches.
"The game today, with the ball the way it was moving on the surface, it was like summer."
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