Philip Wall and Kilbrittain proud to be standing on the shoulders of giants
Kilbrittain captain Philip Wall lifts the Rody Nealon Cup after the AIB Munster Club JHC final win over Kilrossanty in December. Picture: Dan Linehan
Philip Wall has become used to lifting trophies in the 2025 season – and there may be one more to come.
The Kilbrittain captain has already hoisted the Jimmy O’Mahony Cup after the club won the Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier JHC in October; then, in early December, the Rody Nealon Cup followed as the West Cork club claimed provincial glory.
On Saturday at 3.15pm, they take on Easkey on Sligo in the All-Ireland final in Croke Park. Win or lose, a marvellous campaign will be feted as more than 500 people attend a banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Dublin Airport on Saturday night.
Wall has delivered excellent speeches on accepting the trophies, not least in that they pay tribute to the efforts put in by those who have helped the team to where they are.
His brother Jamie was manager from 2020-23, taking the club to the county final in the fifth tier (then called the Lower IHC before being rebranded Premier JHC), while John Considine was in charge in 2024, when Kilbrittain lost just one of three group games but didn’t qualify for the knockouts as they drew the other two. Joe Ryan, part of Considine’s management, stepped up to the main role for 2025.
Equally, players like Ross Cashman, Maurice Sexton and Conor Moloney provided leadership in difficult times and, while their retirements mean they won’t be on the pitch, their presence is still felt.
“Joe would say this as well – it’s not like he has come in, ripped up the playbook and we’ve gone from 0-60,” Philip Wall says.
“We've kept it very kind of similar, just maybe, you know, bringing your own kind of personality with Joe and the lads and a few different things.
“The work Jamie put in was incredible, considering where we were in 2019 – that year, we lost to Ballinhassig’s second team and had to win a play-off to avoid going down junior A. That’s not that long ago.
“We played six games that year and we lost five. We were competitive in them but we lost them and that was down to the players.
“We needed a reset and needed some tough love, I would say. We got it from Jamie and then John brought that on as well from last year -we got promoted in the league, which was huge.
“With the way it was last year, it was a bit scattered, with players away and so on and players not playing for whatever reason.
“It was very much keeping the show on the road and a lot of players were blooded. The likes of Darragh Con, Ronan Crowley, Eoin O’Neill, Conor Hogan, they’ve all come on hugely this year. Just the element of pace that they've brought to either corner is huge for the team.
“The likes of Maurice and Ross – and Moloney, who was coming down from Dublin to play – they gave so much. Disappointing is the wrong word, but it’s a shame that they’re not there with us, but of course they will be in Croker.
“They’re still very much a part of the group.”
It is a group driven by the chance to make history – and aware of the fact that fortune has smiled on them.
“I said to the lads, we're saying it's once in a lifetime,” Wall says, “but that's not really true because there's so many lifetimes that don't get to do it. It's once in a few lifetimes.
“I give the example of Newcestown, who are the standard-bearers for the county, not only West Cork, but they've never got to Croker, just because of the way that they've been so successful in the grades that they have been.
“We were lucky that they renamed our grade, that gave us the opportunity, but it’s unbelievable. It's a real kind of – opportunity is the main thing, but it's not lost on us, the occasion.
“Jamie and I spoke about it before – I think, with this grade especially, and to be honest, all the lower grades, once you start to think that you're too good for the grade, you'll get caught.
“It happens all the time – you see a team that are looking really good and they get caught because maybe they take their eye off the ball, or maybe that's a bit harsh, but it certainly is a way of humbling you.
“One thing this year, we've approached every game to the team that we're playing. We've looked mainly at ourselves, but we've done a bit on them and then that's how we go.
“So, when people ask how you prepare for Croke Park, the way you do it is to look at Easkey. That’s how we’re preparing for this game, we’re trying to beat Easkey and I’m sure they’re exactly the same.
“The Croke Park element is unreal but, if we had to play Easkey in Clonmel, that’s where we’d be preparing for. That’s all it’s about.”
Kilbrittain have benefited from a lack of injuries in getting to Croke Park – but also benefited from the fact that such a balance team has been built.
“Joe and the management deserve a lot of credit for that,” Wall says.
“At the start of the year, it was me and Luke Griffin inside, but we didn't have the same amount of balance in the forwards, so we moved that.
“Getting the likes of Luke up from minors is huge, Ronan Crowley stepping up, Conor Hogan, and obviously the two boys [Aaron Holland coming back, but Usti [Conor Ustianowski] coming back as well. There is a real balance.
“We have probably been confident for a while without backing up properly in previous years. We probably knew against Kilrossanty, for example, that myself and Mark [Hickey] were definitely going to be picked up, and Luke was probably going to be picked as well. Then, after the Knockaderry game, okay, they have to pick Hogan because he did so well in the first round.
“So, then, maybe, they mightn’t have as much attention on, say, Bertie [Butler], for example.
“We’re lucky that we have a lot of good players for the level we’re in, so an opponent might neglect one forward a game because it’s very hard to pick up all six. You saw Bertie in the Munster final and he was brilliant.
“That’s an area in which we were confident of gaining an edge.
“It’s very reassuring.”
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