Mick Heelan – “This is a golden era of Kilmallock hurling.”

Kilmallock will hope to land their first Daly Cup since 2014 this weekend when they clash with the side that they defeated on that day, Na Piarsaigh, at the Gaelic Grounds. An excellent group stages campaign saw the eleven-time county champions win five from five before dethroning last year’s champions in the semi-final.

The Balbec won the first of their eleven county championships in 1960 and went onto win three in a row 1973,1974,1975. Despite the success of the past, selector Mick Heelan believes that this current squad represent a golden era of Kilmallock hurling.

“This group of players have three county championships in ’10, ’12 and ’14 under their belts. In my opinion this is a golden era of Kilmallock hurling. With minor, under 21 and three senior championships under their belt already, glory days for Kilmallock.”

Video courtesy of Kevin Daly Video.

The goal for Kilmallock this year was to reach the semi-final stages so that they could give themselves the chance to atone for their defeat at that stage last year. Not only did they reach the semi but they were faced with the very opposition that had put them to the sword in the last campaign. Although many say that Patrickswell underperformed on the day, Heelan maintains that you can only beat what’s in front of you.

“Our goal was to get back to that semi-final, which we felt we left after us last year. That was our idea this year to get back to that semi-final, get through it and take the final as it comes.”

“We were quite happy with our display and we can only beat what’s in front of us. They had two games under their belt so that must have brought them on and we feel that the (semi-final) match will bring us on a lot. It’s a knock-out game, it’s a winner take all and we were slightly nervous after last year but luckily for us it worked our okay.”

With every county title that Kilmallock win grows the expectation and hunger in the parish for more silverware. Heelan is hoping that his side can get back to the All-Ireland club final again this year following their defeat in the final of the competition in 2014.

“The expectation in Kilmallock certainly is that you reach a county final, the fans would be very disappointed if you didn’t reach a final at least.

“We’re very hungry, we tasted success in 2014, and we came out of Munster and got to that All-Ireland final, we’re very hungry to get back there again and feel we have the players to get over this one on Sunday.”

Having eyes already set on a return to the All-Ireland final shows the confidence within the Kilmallock set up. The strength and depth in the panel is a major factor in the side’s success this year, Heelan says that the squad is stronger this year than it was in 2014.

“We’ve a much stronger panel than we had three years ago, there’s some big calls to be made. We’ve some very good subs who’ve been on Limerick teams and might not make the starting 15 on the day.”

“This year we have 6 or 7 under 21 players, they’ve added a lot of energy to our team and three or four of them have played with the Limerick under 21’s that won an All-Ireland and one of them is on the under 21 team of the year.”

Where will the Daly Cup be this morning Week?? @KilmallockGAA or @NapGAA. BEST OF LUCK TO BOTH TEAMS IN #CUSHC Final 2017 Sunday at 3.30pm pic.twitter.com/H1TmJdwVap

— Siobhan Scanlon (@SiobhS79) October 9, 2017

This Sunday’s opponents, Na Piarsaigh have an outstanding forward line who will no doubt take their chances in front of goal. It’s something that Kilmallock need to work on ahead of the final.

“When you look at the first half we only scored 1-7, eight scores in a half an hour certainly wouldn’t be good enough for us and we certainly think we can work on that.”

Some may say that Kilmallock’s passage to the final hasn’t been as difficult as years gone by. Heelan believes that the challenge games that his side played during the five week interval between the group and knock-out stages of the competition should stand to them come Sunday.

“Maybe so but still we’ve played some very good teams from outside the county and some of them are in county finals now, some are in semi-finals and we fared quite well against them. The boys will raise their ante for the final and we’re quite happy that the boys will perform on the day.”