Adam Screeney says Kilcormac/Killoughey still as hungry as ever for success

SHARPSHOOTING forward Adam Screeney picked up his fourth Offaly senior hurling medal as he helped Kilcormac/Killoughey overcome Ballinamere by a two point margin in Sunday's county final in Tullamore.

After completing the four in a row the thirst for success shows no sign of waning and Kilcormac/Killoughey are looking forward now to representing Offaly in Leinster and hoping to collect a second provincial title.

“You can see the excitement there after the game. We're as hungry as we were for the first one, so it's just brilliant to get over the line,” the corner forward said.

It was a gme that took a while to spark to life but Adam attributed that to the good set ups by both sides.

“I don't know if it was slow to get going. I think it was Ballinamere were very well set up, so were we. It was very hot and heavy hitting, a lot of physicality, good few frees, so I suppose that's the nervous start to a county final you're going to get. And look, we got a couple of scores at the end of first half which put us in the lead and we managed to hold on from there.”

The sides were level after 28 minutes but a quick burst of scores gave Kilcormac/Killoughey a four point half time lead. “It made a huge difference going in to half time. The way the breeze that's here is going down the field, we knew Ballinamere had it in the second half, so look, we knew if we could come out in the second half, hit the first one or two points, it would put us in the driving seat. We'd keep the scoreboard ticking over.

“In fairness to them, they threw everything at us there at the end. Could have gone another way, could have got a goal, but our defence was amazing. They held out with such dangerous forwards that Ballinamere have, but I just can't compliment our defence enough, the way they kept them out.”

One member of that defence Ter Guinan got the man of the match award. “We know what Ter can do. He's one of the best hurlers that we have on our team, and he was given a job today to follow Dan Bourke, and he did it to the best of his ability, and the same as the rest of the lads out there. Every day they come, they're just so honest. They're an honest group of lads, and yeah, we'll enjoy the next few days.”

Further indicating the focus Kilcormac/Killoughey had for Sunday's game, Adam said they didn't look ahead at the Leinster Club campaign and admitted he didn't know who they would be playing but said now they would focus on that and give it a right rattle. “We haven't really looked forward to the Leinster campaign because it was such a task at hand coming here today, but I'm sure that over the next week that we'll look at what's coming in front of us, and we'll give it our best effort.”

Kilcormac/Killoughey completed the four in a row on Sunday and Adam said “it's very special to be the first team in the club to do that. In fairness to the elder generation, they really laid down the foundations for us, and we just kept building and building, and as you can see, Damo (Kilmartin), Conor Mahon, they're an absolute credit to themselves, the way they performed today, and the way they perform every day, and drive on the standards every day.

“When we were under pressure there from the puck out, we just put Conor Mahon there. He wins puck out after puck out. He's just something really special, and it's something in our club that we're so blessed to have,” Adam added.