O’Loughlin Gaels tread carefully. Kilkenny champions for the first time in seven years and heirs to the expectation levels set by their five-in-a-row predecessors, Ballyhale, they have managed their progress adroitly.
On Saturday they go to Croke Park, one match away from a Leinster title and two from an All-Ireland final.
For added caution their most recent provincial final ended in defeat by Cuala and this weekend they again face Dublin champions, this time Na Fianna.
“We haven’t been in a Leinster club final since 2016 where Cuala gave us a bit of a lesson to be honest. So we are absolutely thrilled to be back,” says captain Mark Bergin.
The club are back in Croke Park for the first time since their only All-Ireland final appearance in 2011, against Clarinbridge.
“We were well beaten that day,” he recalls. “We were in a good position in the first half, but they got a goal or two before half-time. It was bitterly disappointing. I was only a young lad at the time.
“You think you might get another chance but it took six years to win Kilkenny again and another seven to get here now. It’s not easy. When you get your chance, you’ve got to take it.”
A veteran of both those major disappointments, Bergin leads by example. Despite a difficult wind, he hit two of the three-point salvo in injury-time, which sealed last Saturday’s semi-final against Kilcormac-Killoughey.
Under former Kilkenny centre back Brian Hogan’s astute management, O’Loughlin’s struck late in the county final to edge out by a point All-Ireland champions Ballyhale who were looking to win a sixth successive title.
Bergin made a very gracious acceptance speech, praising his opponents for their achievements, sentiments he is happy to confirm.
“We have absolutely huge respect for them. They would hope that we go on and represent Kilkenny too. They are a real, genuine hard-working club and we have nothing but admiration for them.
“To get to the final we were thrilled and obviously, we caught them in the last minute and I think, we were just saying it, the only way to beat them really is at the final whistle.”
There is a consensus among the players and management that the first provincial round two weeks later, against former champions Mount Leinster Rangers from Carlow, was a potential pitfall.
Between celebrating the county title and watching their county contingent head off to New York on the Kilkenny holiday there wasn’t a whole lot of time to prepare but they negotiated it.
Then it was Kilcormac, the youthful Offaly side embarking on what many believe will be a bright future, away in Tullamore. But again they coped and survived a furious second-half comeback.
The steady progress this season is in stark contrast to last season’s overall performance.
“Last year we had a very bad year, beaten in the first round by Mullinavat after getting to the county final the previous year. But Brian came in and he surrounded himself with great club men, great club people – Alan Geoghegan, Alan O’Brien, Nigel Skehan, lads that played before.”
After the semi-final, All Star full back Huw Lawlor paid special tribute to Mickey Comerford, the S+C coach, who had them all well primed to resist Kilcormac’s late surge.
Bergin is, at 34, the team’s oldest player, beating goalkeeper Stephen Murphy by a few weeks, and he played on the same team as manager Hogan, who he says has been a sympathetic as well as inspiring presence.
“He set a plan out in place. He was very, very fair to us. Weekends off or a couple of weeks’ holidays, there was no issue and I think that really brought people together.
“Once the real stuff started in August we were full steam ahead. It was absolutely super. To be honest, I couldn’t speak highly enough of him.”
This enlightened approach is outlined in the week when social media throbbed with outrage over the prescribed training regime at a certain GAA club. Bergin is so aghast that he hopes it turns out to be a hoax.
“Sure, it’s not healthy, it’s not healthy at all. You have to treat players like adults as well and there has to be that respect there and while hurling is so, so important, as is football and everything else, there is a life outside of it too.
“And it’s trying to get that balance right. Yeah, I saw that last night. It’s pretty serious all right.”
School principal at Church Hill NS in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny, the Cats’ glorious era didn’t entirely pass him by and he played for the county in a couple of years and has an All-Ireland medal from 2012.
“You are looking at some of the greats that played the game. I’m absolutely delighted to say I shared a dressingroom with them and played some small part. Even being managed by Brian Cody, the greatest manager of all time. It was fantastic.”
