Mixing youth and experience the key to St Mullins' victory

Paudie Kehoe is one of the St Mullins most experienced players. The former intercounty player has done it all and his list of achievements includes winning a Christy Ring Cup final with Carlow. He knows what is going on in the St Mullins area.

“I was lucky enough. The amount of hurlers I have played with but those lads I played with today were unbelievable. They are what is really driving it. Young lads have no fear. They stay going. Mouse and James (Doyle) have been driving it for years. Now these lads are coming in and making their contribution. It is a 15-20-man game now. It is so fast, you need everyone,” said Kehoe who tells a story of the rate of drop off of players at underage.

“It is important to keep the young lads going. Someone said to us when we had an under 14 that only two or three would end up hurling at adult level. We didn’t believe him but when you look back at photos it is true. You have to keep those two or three coming through every few years. It keeps the club going and luckily we have done that.” Kehoe, the veteran, knows St Mullins have a small pool to pick from.

“We are caught with numbers at underage. When we were growing up we had a panel of 17-18 if we were lucky. You try and bring as many as you can throw. There is nothing else to do down in our parish. It feeds on to the pitch. Lads come and go. When we were younger we watched Tom Doyle here and now we hope that some of the younger lads will want to do what we have done. They are watching us win county titles and they want to do the same,” said Paudie, who won his first senior title in 2010 on the same day that his own clubman, Pat Coady, won the Man of the Match Award and announced his retirement shortly afterwards.

Yet, this victory was also a vindication of St Mullins's ability to bring in young players little by little. Brothers Paidi and Eamon O’Shea are two young men while Ciaran Harris is only 19 years of age.

“A great one (senior final win) to have,” said Paidi.

“We have one together but one on the pitch is very special. I was on the senior panel in 2019 so this is my third one."

Incredibly, Eamonn revealed that any silverware he has won is as scarce as hens’ teeth.

“I never won anything on the pitch so this one is really special for me. I might have won an under 20 B or something like that but that was it,” he said.

“It feels good. I will enjoy it while it last,” he said happily.

“Pure hard work and determination won it for us. We felt last year we didn’t perform as well as we should have. This year was about getting to the final and getting a good result in it. We really wanted to win it this year.” 

Ciaran Harris has settled into the team at midfield. Admittedly, the way the game is gone, the same players could end up in either the full or half-back areas.

“It is constantly moving,” agreed Harris.

“Lads are all over the place. I started wing-back. I was marking Dean Tobin and then I was marking Donagh Murphy. When Paul Doyle and Paudie Kehoe got a yellow we swapped it around,” said Harris who won an intermediate medal last year but never envisaged he would be getting a senior twelve months later.

“I didn’t think it would be happening for another few years. We had great resolve.”