Appointment of new manager draws line under Kilcormac-Killoughey managerial saga

KILCORMAC-Killoughey GAA Club have drawn a line under an increasingly messy and fractious saga by appointing a new senior hurling manager.

They have gone a bit to the left field with their appointment but have secured a man with a sufficiently big enough pedigree to alleviate the mounting local pressure.

The new manager is Tipperary man Declan Laffan. He has been a selector with Tipperary senior hurlers under Liam Cahill in recent years. A member of the Loughmore-Castleiney club, Laffan comes into the job with a very impressive track record.

Negotiations with Laffan concluded over the weekend with players informed of the decision on Sunday evening.

He has guided his native club to several titles at various levels and was their manager when they won a famous Tipperary Senior Hurling and Football Championship double in 2013. They were the first club to achieve the double and it was a serious achievement for Laffan, who spent almost ten years there as joint hurling and football manager.

After that, he managed Laois club Clough Ballacolla for a few years, leading them to three senior hurling titles in a row from 2020 to 2022. They reached the Leinster club final in 2021, where they lost to Kilkenny's Ballyhale Shamrocks. He only stepped down with Clough Ballacolla after being becoming a Tipp selector in 2022.

Following the ruthless dismissal of Shane Hand as manager just before Christmas, there had been no shortage of speculation about his replacement. A rumour about Clare folk hero and former Clare and Dublin manager Anthony Daly spread like wildfire last week but it soon became apparent that this was false.

Laffan's appointment will lift the pressure that had descended on club officers after the decision to jettison Hand. Hand's departure had raised plenty of eyebrows as he had led Kilcormac-Killoughey to back to back Offaly senior hurling titles while they had reached the Leinster club senior hurling final in 2024, losing out to Na Fianna of Dublin, who destroyed Sarsfields of Cork in the All-Ireland club final on Sunday afternoon.

There had been plenty of speculation about the new manager and Laffan's appointment should go down very well with the players and people in the club, irrespective of any lingering disquiet at the manner of Hand's departure.

His appointment will draw the line under a messy affair that proved a big talking point in the club and much further afield. With Shane Hand ratified as the new Tullamore senior hurling manager on Tuesday evening, K-K will now get back to basics.

Hand's dismissal and Laffan's appointment is a clear statement of intent by Kilcormac-Killoughey who have many of the best young hurlers in Offaly. They have most of the ingredients to dominate Offaly hurling for some time while the decision to seek a new manager, despite winning Offaly titles, is clearly aimed at winning provincial and national titles.

That does mean that there is pressure on all involved but Laffan won't be affected by that and won't be looking one bit further than the Offaly campaign later this summer.

Securing a high profile manager would have been very desirable for K-K after their big call – with such talent at their disposal, they were a very attractive proposition for managers. While Laffan has not a huge high profile outside of Tipperary, and Laois, his CV commands complete respect and K-K have obvious potential to go very well.

There are challenges for the new manager. Some of the young players have physical developing to do and Na Fianna demonstrated this. That work will reach fruition in the next couple of years but by then some of their most experienced and strongest players, Damian Kilmartin, Conor Mahon and a couple of others could be either gone or in decline, which will leave a vacuum for them.

Another Tipperary man Tony Gleeson was a coach for the last two years under Shane Hand. Also a coach with Offaly U20 hurlers as they won the 2024 All-Ireland, it will be interesting to see if he will be back on board with the new manager. The full package is likely to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

Laois and Clough Ballacolla forward, Willie Dunphy gave an insight into Laffan in 2022 when he spoke to Michael Verney of the Irish Independent. “I don’t know what we’re going to do to keep him, but he’s a shrewd operator. Nothing passes him, nothing fazes him, there’s no panic. We don’t do anything special, we come to training Tuesday and Friday and Sunday mornings, he makes it up as he goes along the trainings and it’s all business with him.

“But it’s enjoyable as well and he’s able to get the most out of every player. We used 22 or 23 players this year and every one of them are contributing when they start or came on.”

Laffan said about his spell in Laois: “I would class myself a little bit old-school in ways. I think there’s an awful lot of coaches out there now that are trying to make the game of hurling way too complicated. It’s quite a simple game.

“You can dress it up and do drills and stick cones here, there and everywhere but the moral of the story is that you have to score goals and points and you’ve to defend them at the other end.

“I’d be a big believer in moving the ball quick. If it’s on to go direct, you go direct. If it’s not, you work it through the lines.

“You have to be able to play a little bit of both styles now in this day and age but a lot of coaches irritate me, I won’t lie.

“If you have a Willie Dunphy and a (Stephen) ‘Picky’ Maher inside, why would you not use them? It stretches the field as well. You can move the ball 90 yards in a few seconds, why don’t you use it and if you have big men like them inside and they’re really good finishers, keep it simple.”

He also spoke about his appointment as a Tipp hurling selector.

“It’s new obviously and I’d like to think that I earned my chance to go in there, I’ve been fortunate to win here and obviously with my home club in Loughmore as well.

“I suppose the big problem people had with me over the years was they didn’t know if I was a hurling man or a football man because of the Loughmore ‘dual problem’ as we call it, but it’s a wonderful opportunity

“It’s wonderful to be asked. It’s a different time of the year and a different season. Munster championship is so competitive, we’re just trying to get a team ready and obviously we’re starting at such a low point – hopefully, things will only improve.”