Kilshannig in no mood to halt momentum on return to senior ranks
2024: Kilshannig captain Colm O'Shea and Eanna O'Hanlon raise the Billy Long cup. Pic: Eddie O'Hare
It’s the back end of 2022. Kilshannig are hunting an ever-elusive football and hurling double.
The Glantane club defeated Aghabullogue in October ’22 to secure a spot in the Premier Intermediate football ranks and would come ever so close to securing that elusive double weeks later.
Although their Junior A hurlers fell just short of county honours – losing out to Erin’s Own after a replay and extra-time - momentum played a key role in all they achieved three years ago.
That week-on-week grind of big ball and small ball drove both sides to county glory in one code, and the cusp of the same in the other.
Momentum is a funny thing in sport, and it’s something the club, and especially the footballers, are very familiar with.
It’s now 2025. Kilshannig have risen to the Senior A football ranks in Cork. It’s air they haven’t breathed in over 30 years.
They’ve done so by securing their second county title in three seasons, and their third in six. A meteoric rise. Wind in their blue and gold sails. That’s what you call momentum.
2024’s football success came with no shortage of drama, after being forced to battle with old dance partners Aghabullogue over two days to earn their spot back in senior football.
For Colm O’Shea, who was man of the match and hoisted the cup at Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh alongside Éanna O’Hanlon last November, that momentum is something they will feed off when they meet Newmarket in their SAFC opener on Saturday night.
"Going back the years, in 2022, we went a long way in the hurling and won the football, but definitely, that year, we were feeding off the momentum in both codes, which really helped,” defender O’Shea said.
"We try and do that every year, try and build momentum from both codes. It does help and if we can get off the mark on Saturday, it would be huge.
"The first game is huge for every team; it takes a small bit of pressure off. You're not home and hosed yet but it definitely takes a bit of pressure off."
Newmarket, O’Shea assures us, is all Kilshannig are thinking about in the here and now. But this is no easy group.
Éire Óg, relegated from the senior ranks last year, and Kanturk, beaten on penalties by eventual winners Carrigaline at the last-four stage, await in the weeks to come.
"We’re looking forward to it. We're just going to take it game-by-game and see how we go,” O’Shea said. “We know it's going to be a tough battle, we know there will be no easy game at any stage this year.
"It's a tough group; there'll be no easy games. They're big names, but we're looking forward to playing them teams; that's who you want to be playing.
“You want to be playing the top teams, and here we are now, thrown into the middle of it, so yeah, really looking forward to it."
A collection of the latest sports news, reports and analysis from Cork.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
