Well done to Kilshannig yesterday! They were worthy winners. While they struggled earlier on in the championship, they got all of their key players back fit and ended up blowing the other contenders out of the water, beating Mitchelstown comprehensively in the semi final and Aghabullogue convincingly in the final.
They are ready made for Premier Intermediate and their age profile is on their side. While you'd imagine Iveleary, Cill na Martra and Bantry will be strong in this grade, Kilshannig will put it up to any of those teams. And as proven by the likes of Knocknagree and Iveleary, momentum from winning the Junior grade in 2019 and the Intermediate grade in 2022 can spur them on to win this grade in the coming years. They certainly have the potential.
The one thing that has impressed me with Kilshannig this year is their strength and conditioning. They have physically blown all the teams they've met out of it, including yesterday. Tom Cunningham was brilliant at corner forward at only 19 years of age. He will surely get a call up to the Cork U20s for next year. But it was the hard work of Eoin O' Sullivan at wing forward set the tone for the day. As the Echo said, he was a constant thorn in Aghabullogue's side. A lot of turnovers and scores came from him and his runs. Great to see Killian and Éanna O Hanlon back fit again and playing well. Colm O' Shea at corner back has been a brilliant man marker all year. He was given the task of minding the key opposition forwards all year and won every battle. Maybe worth a look at for Cork.
Aghabullogue scored 14 goals in this campaign but I felt Kilshannig's defence would shut them down which would be the winning of the game, and that is exactly what happened.
