Kelly points to experience and composure as being the difference for Loughmore

By Shane Brophy

Loughmore/Castleiney are such a self-motivated team that they don’t lack for anything to get themselves up for a game but the quest to retain the Dan Breen Cup for the first time was a target admitted victorious manager Eamonn Kelly.

“That was our motivation,” admitted the Kiladangan native as they became the first club to retain the county senior hurling title since Thurles Sarsfields completed a four-in-a-row from 2014-17.

“There's a lot of great Loughmore teams gone in the past, and we said to be the best of the best would be special, and the lads have made a massive effort all year.

“The start of the year was difficult, we had five weddings to contain with up to June and with five weddings, there's five stag parties, so it was nearly like a week on and a week off, like a FÁS (course) there for a while.

“But thankfully the lads, the effort they have put in in the last six weeks has been massive and great credit to Donal (O'Rourke), Hughie (Hannon) and the coaching staff and to Paul Treacy from a fitness side of things, they had the lads in top shape.”

Once again, it wasn’t all plain sailing after overcoming losing their senior football title the previous weekend which created some injury issues for John & Liam McGrath, before a sickness impacted the camp.

“We didn't know until we were doing the warm-up today whether Lorcan Egan was going to be able to play,” Kelly revealed.

“Lorcan gave two or three days in hospital this week with a gastro bug and lost five kilos, I could do with losing that, not him,” he laughed. “To see him out on the field, he just wanted to be there and I thought he had a great game.”

He added: “The likes of John had a knock, Liam had a knock, Lorcan was sick but they're great players and you want to try and get them on the pitch.

“We felt that if they were going to have any chance that we'd start them, they weren't going to be able to come on if they weren't going to be able to start so we said we'd see how long they could go.

“Liam went off with a couple of minutes to go but they all acquitted themselves very well.”

And it was that drive to do anything it takes to win which proved crucial in the end to hold of the Nenagh Eire Og challenge.

“The lads don't panic,” Kelly said.

“Our bench made an impact, Liam Treacy came on there, Tommy Maher, they all made a huge impact. That bit of experience probably got them across the line.

“They set themselves very high standards. “It's very hard to train it. But there's a lot of them with a lot of mileage on the clock.

“They've done now what no other Loughmore team did before them, they've won it back-to-back. To be the best in a club like Loughmore is a huge credit to them.”

Loughmore/Castleiney have won Munster Club title before in 2007 but following their last three county titles, haven’t had much luck in losing to Na Piarsaigh (2013) and Ballygunner (2021 & 2024), and Kelly admitted this is something they will be going after.

“Last year, we went down to Ballygunner and some of the lads were sick going down,” Kelly revealed.

“Listen, Ballygunner are a great side, but we felt we didn't get a chance to show what we're capable of doing.

“It's great to get back there and have the opportunity to go play (Eire Og) Ennis, who are a very good side. I've seen them play two or three times.

“We'll prepare for that the best we can. We'll enjoy this for a few days and we'll regroup later on in the week.”