Joe Ryan says Kilbrittain are embracing the special occasion - but ready to focus on game at hand

December 26, 1904 saw a newly-formed Kilbrittain team play its first game, making the short journey to Bandon to take on the local side.

A brief report in the New Year’s Eve edition of The Southern Star noted a victory for Kilbrittain on a scoreline of 0-5 to 0-1 and finished with an optimistic expression that “it is to be hoped that such a good exhibition of hurling as was thus displayed between two absolutely new teams will encourage a more general revival of this fine manly pastime.”

The hope of the reporter was realised: hurling quickly became the game of choice in Kilbrittain and the club won the inaugural south-west junior title after the Carbery board was established in 1925. Four of the next five were won, too, but it took until 1985 for a county championship victory, followed a decade later by intermediate glory and a four-year stint at senior.

In 2010, they again won the IHC, by then the third tier, though by the time of the restructuring of the championships for 2020, they were placed in the fifth stratum - lower intermediate as it was initially known before a rebranding to premier junior allowed Cork to send the winners forward to Munster.

Near misses followed before they finally got over the line in October, going on to add the Munster junior championship.

On St Stephen’s Day just past, Kilbrittain marked the 121st anniversary of that first outing with a training session – it was no hardship, however, as the sights were set on tomorrow’s All-Ireland final against Easkey of Sligo in Croke Park (3.15pm).

The coach of the 1985 team was the legendary Pa Finn – he and his good friend Jerry Ryan of Ballinascarthy were Cork selectors together under Denis Walsh and Jerry’s son Joe is now the man in charge of Kilbrittain, living there with his wife Lorna and daughters Maggie and Elin.

Ryan and his selectors have had the benefit of being able to pick the same starting 15 for the past six matches, dating back to their last group match against Nemo Rangers. His medical expertise could be a factor – he is a general practitioner based in Bandon – but he prefers to send the praise elsewhere.

“It's unique,” he agrees.

“Obviously, the players are playing well enough and there’s a bit of confidence there from winning but Mark Eaton, our strength and conditioning coach, has done an awful lot of work with him.

“He would have had a couple of sessions with them over Christmas and it’s testament to him that we haven’t had any serious injuries.”

Such routine is welcome, given the unprecedented nature of the current situation. Ryan admits that the build-up feels different.

“It does, really,” he says.

“You can have the best-laid plans but the interest is incredible. I’m all about embracing it and enjoying it as much as you can and getting the player to do that – the important thing then is that, when we’re training, we're still just doing what we normally do.

“We’re doing a bit of work on Easkey and doing a bit of work on ourselves and let them enjoy everything outside of that.

“It’s like anything - if we win on Saturday, it was the right thing to do and if we lose then maybe it wasn’t but there’s a huge buzz around the club and community. There’s no way you can ignore it.”

Equally, the fact that they will be gracing the biggest stage of all is something that cannot be suppressed. Instead, Ryan prefers to acknowledge such scenarios and then, when necessary, switch the focus.

“It was something we talked about before the Davidstown game [All-Ireland semi-final] and a bit before the Ballygarvan game [county semi-final],” he says.

“We knew what the outcome was, a place in a final, so what we did was we spoke about it and then, just before the warm-up, that was the time to park it and say, ‘We’re here to win a match.’ I think it’ll be like that again.

“It’s difficult but you're kind of asking for advice from people who've either played in Croke Park or managed teams in Croke Park, or what their experience was, and you're taking little bits from that to maybe just remind the lads.

“Ultimately, they just want to play and the surface is going to be immaculate. What you’re trying to do is make sure that, when the ball is thrown in, they’re ready for it.”