KILMESSAN…0-22
KILTALE…0-15
When I was growing up and not properly attuned to all things GAA – even in Meath – it appeared that Kilmessan and Trim met every year in the SHC Final. And, at that particular point in time, Trim always seemed to win. Understandable too, given that at the time it was a team stacked with hurling luminaries in the county.
Beginning with the legend Frank McCann in goal. Though legend might not even go far enough to describe the next man – John ‘Chivers’ Andrews at full back. The man for whom Chivers is now Racing Manager, CJ Murtagh beside him. Out to Corkman Denis O’Keeffe at centre back; Declan Murray and (I think) Eunan McCaffrey around midfield and the quick and skilful Benny Murray at the pivot of their attack.
That is not to say, in any way, the Kilmessan were a back number. Anything but. Their troops being marshalled by the Donnelly brothers – Tony, Willie and Paul, the late Joey Horan in the full back line, Anton O’Neill, Meath footballer Jimmy McGuinness and Jack Smyth – who lined out with Dunderry in the big ball – and one Nicholas Horan – on his way to becoming one of the most prodigious hurling talents this county has ever produced – in their half forwards.
Now, in the first meeting of the age old rivals the one seeing eye here encountered in the flesh – 1994 – from memory, Trim, then managed by the great Sean Colgan, won actually with a bit to spare. My attendance being down to the fact that Dunboyne had contested (and lost) the MHC decider against Gaeil Colmcille.
Twelve months on, Athboy (now Clann Na nGael) were the opposition but the outcome was unfortunately the same from our perspective. On that occasion, though, a serious injury sustained by Stephen Mulvey – which I will forever be convinced was no accident – was ultimately the deciding factor.
By the time the 1996 hurling finals came about, I had something of a vested interest therein owing to the fact that then Kilmessan coach Cyril Maguire was in the process of building what are now my living quarters/office. Unfortunately for those from Donnelly/Loughran Park, the extra bit of support from this seat didn’t do them any good as the white and blue would actually go on to lose three Jubilee Cup finals on the spin – two to Trim and the third to Rathmolyon.
Thankfully for all concerned, though, Cyril stayed with them and it ended up being fourth time lucky for his Kilmessan charges as they stopped The Village from going back to back in 1997. As far as can be recalled, themselves and Trim interchanged a couple of titles – I know in 2001 one of them beat Dunderry after the latter had beaten Dunboyne at the penultimate hurdle.
The following two seasons can be accounted for all too readily as those who were then under the stewardship of Martin Curran accounted for Dunboyne on each occasion. 2003 I’d have absolutely no complaints about, the white and blue toughed out the vile weather conditions better than we did. No qualms there.
However, a decent wad would be wagered that I’m not the only one still attempting to discern how in the name of sweet Jesus we let 2002 get away from us. Two minutes into added time, we led by 0-13 to 0-11 and, though one wondered where Jimmy Henry got all the additional time from, what was even more perplexing was how nobody on our side had the good sense to rugby tackle Peter Reynolds before he kicked to the net.
From a Dunboyne perspective, further Jubilee final defeats were our lot in 2006 and ’08 and I know the latter was the start of a spell of dominance for Kildalkey which to their great credit to a certain degree lasted for the most of a decade. Either by way of them winning the top gong themselves or contesting finals against an equally wonderful Kiltale crew. Who would put five titles in a row together before Ratoath were there to bag a couple.
All of which meant that – with the exception of Trim in what I think was 2022, the so called big two have largely been out of the picture. To the extent that, as Louth’s Kevin Brady threw the ball in today, Kilmessan were hoping to end a 13 year drought.
For context, that would be the equivalent of Kerry going 13 years without a football All Ireland. On the other hand, John Donoghue’s Kiltale had aims of making up for last year’s final defeat.
Early on it was very obvious that it was going to take something fairly significant to split not only two teams stacked with hurling talent but sides who are only a stones throw from each other.
To play into that narrative, almost immediately after the multi talented Ross Ryan spun away from Kilmessan attention and struck a sweet point, their adversaries came straight down the field and Sean Doyle pointed.
Thereafter, it was pretty much point for point for the remainder of the first half.
Peter Durnin and Doyle then traded exquisite points before what ended up being a massive turning point as Sean Power produced a worldy of a save to deny the aforementioned Ryan a certain goal.
Jack Regan pointed the resultant 65, Doyle responded in kind at the other end before the maroon and green hit three in a row via Regan, Durnin and James Kelly while a Doyle free and an imperious effort from raiding corner back Lorcan O’Connor meant that the more recent winners held sway 0-08 to 0-09 before their opponents turning to shoot into the scoreboard end of St Lomans Park.
Now, whatever Chucky Keena and Paul Reilly imparted to their troops at the break had a transformative effect because even allowing for the fact deteriorating eyesight in this seat has drastically negatively effected my ability to watch hurling, those hungry to end their title famine produced the best display of the small ball code witnessed in a very long time.
To point out that Chucky’s chasers ‘won’ the second half by 0-14 to 0-06 would only tell a small fraction of the story. You’d also have to mention the eight points in a row from open play. Courtesy of Lorcan Byrne and Doyle (three apiece), Noah Conroy and Mark Horan.
Five of which tied the sides up at 0-13 apiece. From there, the underdogs went on another scoring burst of seven on the trot. That spurt coming via Byrne and Doyle (three each) Darragh and Mark Horan (two apiece) and Finn Conroy.
All of which left Kilmessan 0-20 to 0-13 to the good and, even though, only as one would expect, Kiltale battled manfully to the end, it was hard to escape the sense of a changing of the guard.
Kilmessan – S. Power; L. O’Connor (0-1), S. Brennan, A. Smyth; K. Gorman, K. Donnelly, W. Byrne; C. Maguire, F. Conroy (0-1); M. Horan (0-2), L. Byrne (0-6), D. Horan (0-2); J. Cottrell, K. Keena, S. Doyle (0-10).
Subs – N. Conroy, J. Keena, C. Greene, P. Farrell, P. Lally.
Kiltale – S. McGann; J. Bannon, I. Hughes, S. Harrigan; B. O’Reilly, P. Garvey, F. McCabe; J. Kelly (0-1), C. Ryan (0-1); A. Murphy, J. Regan (0-6), M. O’Sullivan; P. Durnin (0-2), Ross Ryan (0-2), C. Gilsenan (0-1).
Subs – C. O’Sullivan, Ronan Ryan, A. Forde, L. Madden.
Referee – Kevin Brady (Louth).
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