Ballyskenach-Killavilla making their own piece of history as they aim for unique success

BALLYSKENACH-Killavilla will find themselves in very strange territory on Friday evening when they contest a football final for the first time.

They will play a long established football stronghold, Ballycommon in the Junior “C” Football Championship final in Kilcormac's Faithful Fields.

Offaly's newest club with Ballyskenach and Killavilla having only amalgamated in the past decade following a long drawn out process, their participation in a football final is certainly a new development for them.

They only decided to field a football team this year and that has been partly prompted by the emergence of two outstanding young footballers in the area, twins, Fionn and Rob Carney. They both played minor football for Offaly this year and are certainly embarking on the road less travelled in this almost exclusively hurling area.

The Ballyskenach twins really impressed as Offaly performed to their maximum this year in the Leinster Minor Football Championship before losing heavily to Dublin in the quarter-finals. Their emergence has been a real surprise, a first for this area, close to Roscrea town and up against the Tipperary border.

They have made huge progress through the Offaly development squad system and on successful Cloghan underage teams in recent years and while they are not eligible for adult football yet, they will be next year.

The club has done very well to field a football team this year. A 13-a-side competition, they had 26 players ranging from 18 to 48 at their comprehensive semi-final win oVer Bracknagh a couple of weeks ago. The bulk of the players came off their junior hurling panels with corner forward, Mark Dwyer scoring 3-3.

There will be plenty of interest in seeing how they fare in the final against Ballycommon, who have turned a major corner in recent years. Their first team is in the Senior “B” Football Championship semi-final and they will have a good mix of youth and experience on their second team, all of whom are much more accustomed to the big ball than Ballyskenach-Killavilla- who have performed very well to reach this stage.