Kieran Kingston and Tracton taking it one championship game at a time

Kieran Kingston continues to guide his native Tracton’s return to the Premier Junior A Hurling Grade as he led the Minane Bridge outfit to the Ross Oil SE Junior A hurling title overcoming Valley Rovers in Ballinspittle on Sunday.

However, Kingston has been insistent since he took the reins in January that the club’s focus remains on taking one game at a time.

"We haven’t deserved the right to be talking about county success, the last time Tracton won the South East title was 37 years ago.

"It’s 45 years since we won anything with our top team, so we haven’t earned any right to talk of winning any county title,” Kieran said.

"We never looked beyond today, so we will enjoy this now and we will see who we are drawn against, but we haven’t spoken about anything but this game."

GROUNDED

Incidentally, that opponent could be Ballinora, trained by one Tom Kingston, Kieran’s brother, provided they win their replay against Ballincollig in the Mid Cork final and then get past the Carbery champions. Now there is an interesting matchup.

For now, Kieran will be happy with Sunday’s performance, as Rovers are always difficult opponents, who have contested the last four consecutive finals.

“Valley Rovers are a serious team contesting the divisional championship every year for the last number of years, a huge club, with great hurlers and big men,” he said.

Having just overcome Valleys in the round-robin section of the competition Tracton knew they would have to raise the ante in the final, a point Kingston agreed on.

“Coming into today’s game we had four or five players playing well in different games but as a team, we weren’t performing but I thought our work-rate and our attitude was amazing and I’d love to see our stats on the hooks, block and turnovers,” Kieran reflected.

“The work-rate of our lads today was exemplary and their discipline was exemplary too and you couldn’t fault them in that regard.” 

For a championship that had started in August, today’s wintry conditions made the game a tough ask for both teams but Kingston was full of praise for both sides.

“It was a great game in terrible conditions, while the pitch was presented as best as it could be but at the same time in the slippery conditions teams were going to make mistakes.

However, the honesty of effort on both sides was outstanding.” 

While Tracton will enjoy their success around Minane Bridge in the coming days, when they return to training there will be work to be done.

For one, the conceding of three goals that had the potential to derail their season must be something of a concern to Kingston.

“Having conceded the three goals, we will have to have a look at that,” he said.

With the semi-final down for decision for November 15-17, facing the winners of either Carbery or Muskery, Kingston has plenty of time to perfect his charges for a serious assault on the county title.