As the Limerick hurling fraternity gears up for this weekend's county senior hurling final between Kilmallock and Emmets Jerome O'Connell spoke to the respective captains, Gavin O'Mahony and Brian Moloney. Sunday's county final takes place in the Gaelic Grounds at 3.30pm.
Kilmallock captain Gavin O’Mahony is the proud holder of four minor hurling championships, one minor football championship and four county under-21 crowns. But the centre-back would gladly swap all those underage medals for just one county senior championship success.
That is in no way a slight on the years of hard work that earned the Balbec all their underage success, but more it is evidence of the massive hunger that exists in the south Limerick town.
For most followers of those in green and white the wait since 1994 is far too long for the return of the Daly Cup to the town. There were final appearances in 1999 and 2005, but despite a conveyor belt of underage talent senior glory has eluded them.
“The pressure to win a senior is unreal,” commented Kilmallock captain Gavin O’Mahony who has already captained Kilmallock to minor and under-21 county titles.
“I would in a heart-beat,” he said when asked if he would swap his underage medals for senior success.
“We know how tough it is to win the senior. The gap of over 15 years is too much,” he remarked.
“Maybe we were missing from players as a transition from the last successful side to this group. There are a couple of lads still playing, but they are not on the starting team,” said O’Mahony.
“We are still such a young team with the spine of the team mostly under-23, but you always need a core of experienced players. Underage and senior success don’t go hand-in-hand.”
He explained: “Growing up we were all used to winning and then when you don’t it’s about how you handle it. If we won in 2005 it would have broken down a lot of barriers”.
That 2005 defeat to south rivals Garryspillane brought an end to the career of many older players like Mike Houlihan, but it didn’t do anything to lessen the pressure.
“Pressure and expectation are good,” says O’Mahony.
“Expectation keeps you training because you know that there are standards you have to keep. Hurling is huge around Kilmallock. Hurling is always number one.”
Just like their last appearance on county final day, Sunday is another local derby.
“I would have hurled with a lot of them (Emmets). There are ten or 11 of them that I would have played with - they have all played senior or intermediate with Limerick,” he said.
Indeed Effin duo Damien Moloney and Tommy Quaid were club team-mates of O’Mahony’s in 2004 when Kilmallock won the minor title.
“It’s all so local - the banter, I suppose is more for the supporters,” remarked the Kilmallock captain.
The “banter” is a mere sideshow that will matter little if O’Mahony doesn’t return the county title to Kilmallock on Sunday evening.
After a series of changes in recent seasons former Clare senior hurling manager Tony Considine was entrusted with the task of donning the bainesteoir bid this season.
“When someone like that says something you are going to listen,” said O’Mahony of Tony Considine.
“The experience and confidence that he has is great and we all know what he has achieved at club and inter-county level.
“He has great confidence in all our players to just tell them to go out and hurl and if things go wrong you are letting no one down.”
The captain feels that all in the Kilmallock camp could be coming of age.
“Fellas are getting older and stronger and maybe they are now playing in their more natural positions. The talent is there, but the aim is to keep them altogether.”
Brian Moloney
What a year it has been for Brian Moloney. Just 12 months ago Moloney and his Blackrock colleagues were preparing for an assault on the county junior A hurling championship after their replay win over Effin in the south final. The Kilfinane and Ardpatrick men progressed all the way to Croke Park last February and as a result of that All-Ireland success Moloney was selected as captain of the Emmets divisional team. On Sunday he leads out the men from the south division and the opportunity is not lost on the stylish wing back.
“It has been an unbelievable year so far to have come this far to the county final,” he told Leader Sport.
“There is only a chance for two teams to win a county senior medal this year, so we have got to be happy with that. We know that this might be our one big chance to win it. We will loose one club at the end of this season so this might be our best chance,” he explained in reference to the guarantee that there will be south winner of the county intermediate final.
“This could be our one chance so we have nothing to lose.”
Like his manager Brian Moloney can see the positives of divisional teams playing in the county senior championship. In 2009 Moloney and his Blackrock colleagues, Dave Moloney and Richie McCarthy, were making the step up from the junior ranks to senior hurling when they donned the blue and gold of Emmets.
“There are a lot of pros and cons to the Emmets team, but it gives junior and intermediate players a platform to show what they can do and that can only be good for Limerick hurling. You can see when the players go back to their own clubs that the higher standard has helped them to progress. The experience of playing at the higher standard has been great for me personally and I suppose the biggest thing has been the speed of the game,” explained Moloney.
“It’s a big step up, but the Emmets teams has really helped us,” he said in reference to Blackrock’s promotion.
“It’s a great honour for me to be captain,” said Moloney.
“When you look at this team everyone of the players are leaders within their own clubs. We really have 30 captains and in games when it might be in the balance you never have to look too far for someone that will grab the game by the scruff of the neck. With the exception of three of four players the majority of the team would be under 25 years of age.”
The captain said that the motivation behind their 2010 campaign was a disappointing semi-final loss to Na Piarsaigh last season.
“We were all very disgusted with the way we played. Since the start of the year Jimmy and Darren have been telling us that the goal was to get back to the semi-final and get to the final.”
There will be no surprise for either side on Sunday and Moloney sees that as an advantage for both sides.
When the sides met in the group stages in lat May, Kilmallock were 2-12 to 1-12 winners.
“For Kilmallock it is a positive because they know that they can beat us. There was not that much intensity because it was not a knockout game but on Sunday it should be played at a higher grade,” said Moloney.
“Both sets of players know each other very well - there is certainly a rivalry between both teams and there would be a lot of friends involved in both sides but that will be left to one side for an hour on Sunday and then we will be friends again after.”
When Moloney and club colleagues collected the county title last autumn they wore blue and gold against Effin, the Emmets captain will be hoping that could be an omen for Sunday.
Jerome O’Connell
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