Kilmurry looking to build on Junior A success with back-to-back county titles

KILMURRY are the latest side in a list of clubs that have gained promotion from Junior A to Premier Junior/Lower Intermediate and thrived.

Three of the last five Cork Junior A Football Championship winners have gone on to taste success across the Intermediate A and Premier Junior grades, with 2017 winners Knocknagree being the standout success story.

The Duhallow contingent went on to win the Intermediate A grade two years after being promoted, before winning Premier Intermediate the following year in 2020, and they were unfortunate to finish runner up at Senior A level last season.

The last three Junior A title winners in hurling all went on to win Lower Intermediate/Premier Junior the next year. Lisgoold in 2020 and 2021, Ballygiblin in 2021 and 2022, and with their win over St Catherine’s two weeks ago – Erin’s Own in 2022 and 2023.

While that certainly doesn’t guarantee anything for the Kilmurry camp, it must be on their minds as they gear up to face a tough and experienced St Finbarr’s side.

The momentum that teams have been able to carry through after earning promotion across all grades is nothing new, but the new formats have certainly enhanced it. They won’t have it easy though, and William Ronan is well aware of that fact.

“The Barrs, they're a proud club. They’re a senior club,” says joint Kilmurry captain Ronan. “They're going to come with a lot of intensity.

“They have a lot of experience on their team, lads who have Senior All-Ireland medals and county medals with Cork and stuff like that, so we’ll have to plan ahead for that.

“We’re looking forward to it. We've two weeks to prepare, so there’ll be a nice buzz about the place and it’s just about keeping everything calm and preparing as best we can for the final.” 

After an impressive group stage run that saw the Muskerry side breeze through Millstreet and St James’, they also edged out Kinsale to guarantee a semi-final spot, where they faced Cobh.

“I suppose going into game, having played Cobh before, we were able to draw on stuff from the final last year. Obviously certain things mightn’t have gone as well as we hoped in the final, so we were kind of able to improve on those,” Ronan explains. “We got to see them then in their quarter final as well, which might have been an advantage to us.

“With Cobh not really getting to see us in the quarter final, we were able to kind of plan ahead and work on things before that game, the four-week break was definitely a benefit to us.

“There are benefits to it [the four-week break], and probably weaknesses as well, but if you play good challenge games, which we did – we got two very good challenge games that were difficult games to play.

“Obviously, you can't replicate the intensity of championship, but once you're playing high level games and as well the four weeks allowed us to get a few lads who were carrying knocks and stuff fit. Maybe in the championship semi-final we started slow, but we kind of had to try and nullify that as best we could.” 

That they did, as they managed to defeat Cobh by two points. They’re now one step away from returning to the Intermediate ranks in what will no doubt be an exciting final.