It’s a tough league, the AIL. An 18-match, 10-month slog, much of it through the hind tit of winter. To win it is one thing; to reach the final again a year later – as Cork Con have done for the fifth time in the last seven editions of the competition – is another.
“Last year’s final seems like three years ago, with how long and tough the season has been,” says their talismanic backrower Jack Kelleher, “especially with how competitive it’s gotten this year.”
And then there’s winning it back-to-back. Many have tried but no club has managed it since Shannon in 2006.
“That’s been thrown around with Terenure and Clontarf in the last couple of years. You just have to not think about it. The year has been so long, and you have to take the opportunities when they come. Winning it last year doesn’t matter. We just have to focus fully on this Sunday. Back-to-back wouldn’t even be a thought in our heads, just full prep for the final this week.”
Kelleher hopes it will be a fine day, akin to last year, in which to showcase the club game on its blue riband day in the Aviva.
“You see what it means to have your friends and your family up supporting you at the game. Con get a good support and you can see what it means to people beyond the squad. You play to represent them and the whole club.”
If Con are to retain their Energia All-Ireland League title, there’s little doubt that the 23-year-old Kelleher will need to be a contender for man of the match in Sunday’s final against Clontarf (kick-off 4pm). He’d be loath to say it himself, but that’s been the case for pretty much every game this season.
In the IRFU’s most recent statistical update, unsurprisingly Kelleher led the way in Division 1A for both dominant tackles and lineout steals, for they are his trademarks. But he also had Con’s highest number of breakdown steals, had the second highest number of offloads in the division (behind team-mate Seán French) and was Con’s leading carrier and second-highest tackler this season.
“To be honest, I haven’t really been paying much attention to the stats, but I’m quite happy with how I’ve been playing for the most part, although our defence coach, Brian Scott, might say there’s plenty more for me to work on. But a load of lads are having an absolute stormer this year. We’re gelling well as a group.”
He comes from a predominantly GAA family and mostly played hurling, growing up with Na Piarsaigh, as well as a little rugby with Dolphin before the latter took over when he went to Presentation Brothers Cork (PBC).
“It really engulfs you in school. There’s no escaping rugby. Hurling took a back seat then.”
This was despite the best efforts of his dad, Pádraig – although, being sports mad, he and mum Paula were happy to drive Kelleher and his two brothers, Scott and Bobby, all over the country in supporting their rugby and hurling careers. After PBC, Kelleher went to UCC and played for the Ireland Under-20s in the truncated 2021 Six Nations, as well as having two years in Munster sub-academy, which helped fill the pandemic-affected void.
After UCC’s relegation at the end of the 2021-22 season, he switched to Cork Con.
“I’d always had aspirations to play with Con anyway. I was close to going there after school but it was always a goal.”
He reckons the average age of the UCC side back then was 19.
“Then in Con you’ve lads who played years of AIL and a wealth of experience with Cork Con. It’s a different age demographic.”
[ All-Ireland League: Clontarf and Cork Constitution to meet in heavyweight deciderOpens in new window ]
Team-mates and fellow academy players included Alex Kendellen, Darragh McSweeney and Patrick Campbell, all of whom are in the Munster set-up, while many of his former PBC team-mates are dotted around the AIL with Dolphin, UCC and Highfield as well as Con.
“You have ambitions and if a contract had come up into the academy I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat at the time. But it never happened and I’m at ease now and delighted to be playing rugby with Con,” says Kelleher, who completed a master’s in Corporate Finance last year and is working with Provest, a pension management company. He likes his work/rugby/life balance.
“I’d be a competitive person so competing with Con against the top teams like Clontarf, Terenure, Mary’s and Lansdowne, and playing at such a high level each week, I get enjoyment out of that, and also the social aspect is brilliant.
“I’m living in a house with Billy Scannell, Dave Hyland and Bruce Matthews, who are all playing with Cork Con, and you can enjoy Saturdays after a game while trying to stay fit during the week.”
Both teams will be entitled to mark the end of another long, hard season from next Sunday night but, as both of these high-achieving clubs know better than most, the celebrations will taste all the sweeter for whoever wins.
[ AIL round-up: Clontarf beat Cork Con to make it tight at the topOpens in new window ]
Kelleher and co are both wary of and motivated by Clontarf beating them in the last play at home last October and away in February.
“They’re a fantastic side who got the better of us twice this season. They’ve some brilliant players in their squad,” says Kelleher, who captained several of them when he led the Ireland Club XV to their win over Portugal in Lisbon last month.
“Like Con, they’re a proud club who have been competing in Division 1A for years and they’ve had a lot of success as well, so you’d have to admire them in that way.”
In keeping with the season that’s in it, the final is also almost utterly unpredictable.
“Anyone can beat anyone,” says Kelleher, and indeed it’s true. The bottom club Garryowen beat table-topping Clontarf last month.
“It’s class being in such a competitive league.”
