Kilruane’s greatest day

KILLINAN END

As another club campaign for Tipperary’s champions unfolds let us remember one of our greatest teams. Some 40 years ago Kilruane were Kings. A remarkable achievement at the time but its value has only increased since. Kilruane’s prints were everywhere in the 1970s. County Minor titles 1971-73; County Under-21 titles 1973-'76. In 1973 they also played in the Senior final. In 1975 they won the County Senior football, and lost the Senior hurling final after a replay. In 1978, in the midst of a Senior three-in-a-row, the County Intermediate hurling title was won. An extraordinary pool of talent in a rural parish. Doing it outside the county was the icing on the cake.

Kilruane’s opening game in Munster in 1985 was a tricky away fixture. Tallow are not traditional giants of Waterford hurling, but this was their golden era. Three of four County titles had come since 1980. In an intense contest Tallow hit the front with the game’s first goal ten minutes from the end. Kilruane only relished the test of character. A Jim Williams goal and Gilbert Williams point edged the Tipp champions into a Munster Final by the narrowest margin.

The same day Blackrock ran riot at Páirc Uí Chaoimh scoring 2-21, adding Kilmallock ‘to their growing list of victims as they powered their way into the final’ according to one report. Clare’s champions, Kilmaley, had suffered similarly. Cork teams won eleven of the previous fifteen Munster titles. Though their grip was less secure in recent years Blackrock were natural favourites for the competition. Future All-Ireland winner Richard Browne played full-back. A half-back line of Tom Cashman, Frank Cummins and Dermot McCurtain contained three All-Stars, a Hurler of the Year, and a future All-Ireland winning captain. Pat Moylan was another All-Star while Eamon O’Donoghue often featured in the Cork forward line.

Kilruane and Blackrock had history. In the 1979 semi-final Kilruane, playing with 14 men for more than half the game, had the better of it, but in shades of the Centenary Munster Final, conceded 2-2 in the last six minutes to lose by four. A galling home defeat was a potent memory. Kilruane also had Len Gaynor as coach. While his specialist subject on Mastermind might be ‘How to win a North Final’ he would hardly be out of his depth here either. Neither, given the company he kept in his own career, would opponents’ All-Stars, All-Ireland medals, or Hurler of the Year awards impress him.

In the Munster Final at the Gaelic Grounds, Blackrock quickly realised that another free-scoring swashbuckling lark in the park was not happening. Scores were earned and space was tight. A replay was needed, but the first match was not in vain. Kilruane had located feet of clay. The vaunted Blackrock team played second fiddle as scores dried up, while the goal-scoring Eamonn O’Shea tormented Tom Cashman. Only Pat Moylan’s equalising free saved Blackrock.

The replay merely proved the theories the first day posited. Blackrock started well and led 0-4 to 0-2 at fifteen minutes. So far, so misleading. Kilruane squeezed the life out of Blackrock. Even Frank Cummins winced at the physical exchanges. In the end Kilruane won as they pleased with a six-point margin; their illustrious opposition reduced to a single point in the second-half. If Cork clubs had won eleven of the previous fifteen Munster Finals, they would win just one of the next fifteen and feature in only three finals. Maybe this was the day their aura dissipated.

In the All-Ireland series, Desmonds from London, a club now defunct, came to Cloughjordan and lost, before semi-final opponents, Turloughmore, travelled to Nenagh. Galway champions for the first time since their sixth successive title in 1966, Turloughmore included Frank Burke, scorer of spectacular goals during Galway’s 1975 breakthrough. They also had Martin Naughton, a flying forward for Galway, and Gerry Burke, a playing sub against Tipp on a day of long paranoia and short fuses for Tribesmen in 1989. Only Burke rose a flag for Turloughmore, as they fell to a nine-point defeat.

Kilruane’s climb reached its summit on St Patrick’s weekend on Jones’s Road. Wexford’s Buffers Alley took their eighth County title the previous autumn, all won since 1968. The club was synonymous with Tony Doran, now long in the tooth, but active enough to bury Kilkenny’s three-in-a-row ambitions the previous summer. A strong supporting cast had donned purple and gold; Henry Butler, Tom Dempsey, Martin Casey, Colm Doran and Mick Butler among them.

Two early Buffers Alley goals gave them a six-point lead after twenty minutes. The hill was now steep. These goals would weigh heavily on Kilruane’s task all day. By half-time it was down to two points; a second-half arm-wrestle ensued. Teams were level five times, but Pat Quinlan’s goal and Jim Williams’ remarkable five points from play proved decisive. At the long whistle Len Gaynor’s men led by 1-15 to 2-10. A decade and a half’s work became an overnight success. On the greatest day in the club’s history, seven players from the 1976 Under-21 team saw service. No greater tribute to a success grown and nurtured locally.