Kevin’s/Kilian’s hurlers kick off their campaign

St Kevin’s Kilian’s are set to kick off their hurling campaign this weekend as they take on Thomas Davis this coming Sunday in Kiltipper Road.

Currently competing in AHL Division 11, the side have big ambitions for the coming year ahead and years beyond with the future of Hurling looking extremely bright within the club.

The side reached a championship semi-final last year as well as finishing third in the league and would like to improve on both standings ahead of 2026.

Coach Robbie Mullen touched on the ambitions of the side ahead of the upcoming season.

“Trying to get up a league would be great and trying to do something big in the championship would be fantastic.

‘We have a lot of minors coming through over the next year so it’s about having a team as high up as possible for those lads coming through.

‘The real goal this year is to be in the best place possible for next year when all of our minor players will be coming through.”

Indeed, Hurling has only been consistently played in the club for the last six years or so thanks to the work of Tommy Madden.

This generation of minor hurlers represents the first talent that has come through the club at school boy level to eventually play Senior Hurling.

Mullen also spoke on the continued growth of the section over the last few years.

“Since then we’ve just been trying to field senior teams and getting a bit better every year but not really having any consistent youth coming through.

‘This year we have a great minor team and to have them coming through is really going to bring the club on leaps and bounds.

‘That’s the goal is to look at being in the best possible position for those minors next year.”

“Hurling in this part of town isn’t the biggest sport by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s important for those lads to have a good team to strive to get on to.

‘Through the history of the club football was always at the forefront, this is the first wave of youth coming through the club to play hurling in a very long time.”

It’s a quiet part of town, we’ve a very small catchment area with only Kilnamanagh and Kingswood.

We’re bordered by St Marks and Towers and they’d be bigger clubs than us. We’ve been working hard over the past decade or so for bringing players through.”

“It’s only been possible through the likes of mentors Joe Joyce, Pat Devoy and Ciaran Long who worked so hard over the last decade to have a team coming of age now when there was nothing before.

‘We are fielding at most age grades now and it’s been a huge success over the last decade so here we are with the first minor and U16s coming through to feed the adult team. It’s exciting times for the club.”