‘It’s a great place to be’

IT’S not something you want to dwell on – there are bigger and better things ahead – but at the same time you can’t ignore it either. You can’t allow it become the elephant in the room, you can’t allow it to fester.

The O’Donoghue Cup final was a chastening experience for the green and red. Coming just a couple of weeks after the club claimed a famous first Munster title you could forgive everyone involved from feeling a little whip-lashed.

To his credit Kilcummin boss Willie Maher is happy to tackle the issue head on.

“We’ve done relatively well and we came out of Munster, but then we played Dr Crokes and it was a bit of a set-back or maybe even a major set-back, but it was another learning process,” he says.

“You were probably up against one of the best teams in the country if not the best team in the country, the best club team in the country and we were given a footballing lesson. There’s no two ways about it and it took us a while [to get over it].

“We were lucky that fell around the Christmas so we could take a few days off. We’ve gone back hard at it since then. We’ve had six or seven very good sessions and we played a challenge game and I think we’ve got over the shock of that for want of a better word.

“We’re looking forward at this stage to the All Ireland semi-final and hopefully we can acquit ourselves well.”

A good coach will make the best of the hand he’s dealt and the former All Ireland winning wing-forward is a good coach. The evidence of the last twelve months tells us that much, so it’s hardly a surprise that he’s using the Crokes defeat to make his team better, to get them in the right frame of mind for the All Ireland semi-final.

“It was a long year and without getting into it too much, we just didn’t play well on the day,” he continues.

“We were missing a few players, but I wouldn’t be using that as an excuse. We were given a lesson on workrate, on tackling, on shooting, on every aspect of Gaelic football. We didn’t come out anywhere near up to the Crokes. It was a lesson. I hope we learn from it.

“I think we’ve upped the intensity again. It’s not easy to keep the intensity going over twelve months and the Munster final was a huge success for the panel of players and the club and there was a good feel factor after that and maybe we didn’t go in as keyed in as we should to the Crokes game.

“I’d be hopeful that we’d have learned from it and that we’re going in against Two Mile House who are a serious outfit as well and learned from our mistakes as regards tackling and workrate and that. Time will tell.”

The challenged posed by Kildare kingpins has been more than enough to refocus minds in the weeks since the O’Donoghue Cup final in Fitzgerald Stadium.

“I think they were the first club team from Kildare to win an All Ireland club at any level. They’re a serious outfit,” Maher explains.

“It’s unusual there’s a Kilcummin connection you have Micheál Doolan who would have been a stalwart for Kilcummin down through the years, his son Caomhán is playing on the Two Mile House team.

“He’s a very good footballer. He was corner-back the last day. He’s been corner-forward for them, so it’s unusual to have a connection like that. The country is big enough, but it’s a small world afterwards to have a Kilcummin connection.”

Sunday afternoon in the Gaelic Grounds is one of those days you want to be involved in. It’s what clubs dream of. It’s what it’s all about. There’s pressure for sure, but the good kind of pressure, the kind of pressure you actively seek out.

“It was a blip [against Crokes] a major blip, but you can see it in the last few weeks, there’s great interest in the club,” Maher outlines.

“I think there’s two supporters buses have been booked out. There’s a big build-up again. It’s an All Ireland semi-final and we can only look at that game. There’s serious interest and not just in Kilcummin, but in the county when you’re talking to other people.

“There’s only three clubs in the county in this position, twelve in the country, senior, intermediate and junior. That’ll be down to six after a few weeks. It’s a great place to be, we’re looking forward to it and the main thing is to try get over the line and get into the hat for the next round.”