Leinster Club SHC final: Na Fianna (Dublin) 2-22 Kilcormac-Killoughey (Offaly) 2-16
They voted for change on Mobhi Road. On Saturday night at Croke Park a club traditionally associated with Gaelic football became Leinster senior hurling champions. It was an overnight success many years in the making.
Na Fianna only contested their first ever Dublin senior hurling final in 2021. They lost. They got back to the decider again in 2022. Lost again.
In 2023 they got over the line, county champions for the first time. Retained their title in 2024. And on Saturday night they won a first ever Leinster club hurling crown. They were Leinster football champions in 1999.
“Since the late 1990s, the amount of people who put so much work into the players, there are plenty of lads who aren’t on this team who I suppose held the thing at a certain level for a long time,” said Na Fianna manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin.
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“The boys who are here now have been able to kick on and drive on. Hurling wasn’t existing in the club almost in the ‘80s and the early ‘90s.
“What we have won here really is for all those parents and all those coaches who have put so much work in year after year for the last 25 or 30 years, and I’m really pleased for all of them.”
Na Fianna never trailed during Saturday night’s provincial club hurling decider in front of 9,209 spectators at Croke Park, leading from the opening minute until the final whistle.
The Mobhi Road side were 1-13 to 0-11 ahead at the interval and while Kilcormac-Killoughey staged a defiant comeback during the second half, Na Fianna never allowed the Offaly champions to restore parity at any stage.
It was a history-making night on the double at Croke Park. Just like a Dublin Bus, you wait a lifetime for one to come along and then two arrive within minutes. Na Fianna became only the second club in history to be crowned both Leinster hurling and football winners, achieving the feat just two hours after Cuala had become the first.
“We were really, really pleased for Cuala, we actually saw the last few minutes of their game,” added Ó Ceallacháin.
Na Fianna lost last year’s Leinster hurling final by a single point to O’Loughlin Gaels but the pain of that defeat was erased on Saturday as they outplayed Kilcormac-Killoughey for much of this contest.
“I would say about last year, in any high level sport there’s a thin line between absolute elation and absolute disappointment,” added Ó Ceallacháin.
“We fell just the wrong side of that last year. I thought the lads hurled really well, it just went against us in the last few minutes. It’s a world of a difference from last year.”
The key moment in Saturday’s game arrived in the 38th minute when a fortuitous Kilcormac-Killoughey goal left just the minimum between the sides – a 65 hit by Adam Screeney struck the upright and landed to the awaiting, and unmarked, Conor Mahon, who tapped home from close range, 1-16 to 1-15.
Game on. But only for a matter of seconds.
Na Fianna’s response was emphatic. The Dublin side immediately worked the ball down the field in the very next attack where Ciarán Stacey offloaded to AJ Murphy and he tucked the ball beyond Conor Slevin.
It didn’t just cancel out Kilcormac’s goal, it jolted their momentum. If it was a confidence-boosting score for Na Fianna, it left a fair dent in Kilcormac’s belief. It was the response of champions.
“It’s what it’s all about really, isn’t it? At this level, against high class teams you’re going to have periods where you’re going well and you’re going to have periods where you’re taking punches. It’s how you respond,” added Ó Ceallacháin.
To their credit, Kilcormac-Killoughey continued to forage for scores and Leigh Kavanagh was unlucky soon after to see his shot first smack off the crossbar and then rebound straight out to the hands of Na Fianna’s Peter Feeney. Your luck is either in or it’s not.
With Colin Currie unerring from frees, Na Fianna soon started to put a bit of distance between the sides again and a wonderful point by Donal Burke in the final minute of normal time pushed the gap to seven.
Screeney, who showed some flashes of brilliance throughout the contest, burrowed his way out with the ball from a ruck in front of the Na Fianna goal moments later to squeeze home his side’s second goal.
But Burke, capping off a man of the match performance, then floated over a superb injury-time point and when Murphy added another it was clear there would be no way back for Kilcormac-Killoughey.
The margin at the final whistle was six points and in truth Na Fianna were good for that gap, and possibly even a little more.
“We got it back to a point but the second goal was an absolute killer. We had it back to a point and we probably needed to keep it at that for a few minutes just to see what Na Fianna were made of but we just got turned over in the half-back line and in the blink of an eye they had a second goal, that was a killer,” said Kilcormac-Killoughey boss Shane Hand.
Ó Ceallacháin’s side will face Loughrea in an All-Ireland semi-final in two weeks.
Na Fianna, a decorated dual club now. Mobhi Road, home of the Leinster senior club hurling champions.
Na Fianna: Jonathan Treacy; Kevin Burke, Seán Burke, Conor McHugh; Donal Ryan, Liam Rushe, Peter Feeney; Brian Ryan (0-2), Seán Currie (1-0); Gavin King, Donal Burke (0-7), Jack Meagher (0-2); Colin Currie (0-8, 7f), AJ Murphy (1-2), Ciarán Stacey (0-1). Subs: Seán Ryan for King (ht); Shane Barrett for Meagher (58 mins).
Kilcormac-Killoughy: Conor Slevin (0-2, 2f); James Mahon, Oisín Mahon, Tom Spain; Jordan Quinn, Brecon Kavanagh, Enda Grogan; Colin Spain (0-1), Damien Kilmartin; Jack Screeney, Conor Mahon (1-2), Leigh Kavanagh; Adam Screeney (1-8, 0-6f), Charlie Mitchell (0-3), Daniel Hand. Subs: Cillian Kiely for Grogan (39 mins); James Gorman for Hand (42 mins); Peter Geraghty for J Screeney (44 mins); Cathal Kiely for Kavanagh (57 mins); Alex Kavanagh for Kilmartin (59 mins).
Referee: Pádraig Dunne (Laois).
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