Keane taking it one day A big ask for Kiltegan at a time with Éire Óg

Nigel Byrne

KILTEGAN Senior hurling manager Nigel Byrne is a breath of fresh air when it comes to a realistic outlook on his side’s chances in this year’s Senior hurling championship.

He is upfront and says that his side will be giving it a lash when they take on Bray Emmets in their opening game but that the main focus of the Kiltegan club is to keep the game of hurling alive in the west.

‘We’re coming from winning a Junior ‘A’ championship last year, after struggling for many years at Senior, and hopefully we’ll give the Senior a lash this year, hopefully we’ll be dark horses.

How have preparations been?

‘I’d say much the same as everybody else, absolutely in the doldrums as regards the weather is affecting everybody, there’s people on holidays, there’s lads injured with the ground, getting numbers to train at the moment is very difficult, especially for a dual club, it’s very, very difficult because you are horsing the same lads all the time. We do have lads playing under permissions and all that but they’re under pressure to play with their own clubs as well. But we’re trying to keep hurling alive up in our part of the country and next Monday night will be a catalyst for that. We’re playing Bray who were in the county final last year and that will be the bar we will set ourselves against. It’s be a very big test for us. If we were eight or nine points behind them it would be progress for us,’ he said.

Finding the balance in a dual club is not the easiest of tasks.

‘Very, very difficult. Lads kind of wane in their interest, you’re kind of trying to keep lads interested who are at the far end of their thirties involved. Without them you can’t survive because they’re the lads with the experience and you’re trying to breed five or six young lads coming out of Minor and they need the experience there with them and you have to try keep it together for a couple of years in football and hurling so they are bedded in and please God they won’t head all off to different colleges around the country or emigrate.

‘We have the backbone of several teams on paper, we have injuries, Seanie Furlong is injured, Ronan Byrne, Cathal Fitzgerald so there’s three that would walk on to that team.

‘It’ll be a big ask for our lads but they’re all well able to hurl but they are a bit young but we’re trying to keep it alive and build up this team over the next two or three years so talk to me in two or three eyars time and we might be in a better place,’ he added

Peter Keane

ALTHOUGH he believes his side are a match for anyone on their day, Peter Keane isn’t about to nail his colours to the mast and declare Eire Og as the team to beat.

The captain won’t be getting carried away in championship chitter-chatter and making any bold statements about the Greystones club’s hopes or ambitions but he does believe the mixture of experience and youth leave them in very good stead.

He is also confident that there’ll be no fixture pile-up with the football that could possibly derail their season.

“Every team in it could go all the way. We’ll take it game-by-game though. I think we’re playing Pat’s first so we’ll focus on that first before we worry about anything else.

“I think it’ll work out okay. I had a look through the fixtures and it seems to be that every week or couple of weeks we’ll have fixtures so I can’t see it being a problem this year anyway. We can focus on the hurling.”

He does believe Eire Og will be a better side in 2018 than they were in 2017. The combination of young and old is a perfect blend for Eire Og and Keane hopes that the proof will be in the pudding out on the pitch.

“We have improved. Lads had a good year and have come on a bit since then and there’s a couple of young lads that have came in and got a bit of experience and will be looking to push on this year.

“There’s a couple of lads that have just come through and then there’s a couple of lads that have been around a while and it’s good to have a mix especially the younger lads because they do freshen things up and keep you on your toes. The few experienced lads there are very important to have too.”

In Keane’s day-by-day approach, does he believe that his side can raise their game to best anyone on their day?

“You can’t really look past Glenealy and Bray, they’ll be the two lads that going on last year that’d have to be out in front at the moment but we’ll be taking it game-by-game like I said and the way the championship is laid out, if you get too carried away with yourselves it could backfire.

“There’s no point in thinking that you can’t! Every thing comes down to the day.”