FROM EARLY DOORS, Thomastown could sense the doubt around their place in the Kilkenny senior hurling championship.
Newcomers at the top grade, they came into the 2024 championship having won an All-Ireland intermediate title in January. Their intermediate success in Kilkenny was achieved at the fourth attempt after defeats in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Thomastown converted that frustration into dominance as they ripped through the Kilkenny, Leinster and All-Ireland competitions with commanding victories, which included a 16-point win over Castlelyons of Cork in the Croke Park final.
But when they began life at senior level in Kilkenny, it took time to win over the crowd. When they defeated James Stephens in the opening round by 1-23 to 0-20, the feeling was that the Village “didn’t turn up.” Bennettsbridge were apparently “flat” when Thomastown went two for two against them. Their neighbours — and nine-time All-Ireland winners — Ballyhale Shamrocks also fell under their sword in the quarter-final, but the story of that game was more about Ballyhale’s surprise exit than it was about Thomastown’s achievement. At least that’s what club chairman Ger Walsh was hearing.
Even now that they are preparing for a first senior county final since 1988 tomorrow, it seems that Thomastown are still fighting for position. The general belief is that defending champions — and All-Ireland finalists — O’Loughlin Gaels will prevail.
“We’re listening to podcasts and radio, and from the first match, we seemed to get no credit,” Thomastown chairman Walsh tells The 42.
“But we always backed ourselves.”
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Walsh was part of that Thomastown outfit who contested the ’88 final against Ballyhale Shamrocks and can remember the slide that followed as they slowly became a “mediocre junior club.” That’s where they remained until earning promotion to the intermediate ranks in 2005. However, they regressed again.
Meanwhile, just a mile down the road, Ballyhale were becoming a stronghold again in the Kilkenny senior championship. And beyond. They won four county titles in-a-row between 2006 and 2009. Thomastown and Ballyhale were living contrasting lives. And it is so often the case in sport that the closer the proximity to a superior power, the deeper the resentment. But there was no such envy among the Thomastown folks towards their neighbours.
If anything, they were among the Ballyhale fanbase, wishing them well on their rise. After their win in the quarter-final, Thomastown’s Kilkenny star John Donnelly told Clubber that watching TJ Reid win county senior titles in Nowlan Park was how he spent his youth. “We were so far away we probably thought we never were going to get there,” he said at the time.
Walsh echoes that sentiment, saying Thomastown always admired Ballyhale for their “fantastic attitude” from which they harvested their many triumphs, including 20 Kilkenny titles. But they were always striving to match — and hopefully surpass — the feats of the club next door.
“For us to go toe to toe with them, and come out on top, was huge for us,” Walsh continues.
“I’m the senior chairman the last nine years and you would be building towards that, putting blocks in place at juvenile level to bring players through. You always have the belief that you were going to get up senior.
“I hurled at senior level a long time ago but we were in the doldrums for two decades. We’re back now where we think we should be.”
A junior county title in 2012, which culminated in All-Ireland glory, was the first ray of light. Seven years later, they were in an intermediate county final where they were unable to overcome the concession of three goals against Tullaroan. They returned to the final twice more over the next three seasons, going to extra-time on both occasions against Lisdowney [2020] and Danesfort [2022]. The Lisdowney battle even went to penalties. But Thomastown fell on the wrong side of the tight margins in the two showdowns.
Those defeats were avenged last year as Thomastown ripped through the intermediate competition, crushing Fenians by 4-22 to 2-10 in the quarter-final. They were 20-point winners against Dunnamaggin in the semi-final and had 15 points to spare in the final with Mooncoin.
“A cohort of younger players coming through,” Walsh replies when asked about what was different about the Thomastown squad in 2023.
“There’s been a lot of turnover of players since the first final in 2019 and we did lose guys to emigration back then. We won an U21 in 2022 and it was the first that the club ever won. That gave us great momentum and there were huge learnings from the [intermediate] final against Danesfort. The management will tell you that they learnt a lot.
“We changed the way we hurled from then on. It’s a crisper, freer, smarter type of hurling and the guys were given license to express yourself and play the ball out of the backs and not just hoof it. They’re playing with their heads up for the last 18 months and it’s paying off for us.”
Additionally, Thomastown have benefited from the management of Noel O’Doherty. Originally from the Galmoy club, he married into the Thomastown area and has been a resident there for the last 20 years. He was reluctant to join Thomastown’s ranks but Walsh eventually convinced him to join the backroom team when Henry Shefflin took over as manager in 2021.
“When Henry moved on, I asked him to step in as manager which he did for 2022. He learned a lot that year and put his own shape on the team last year and going forward.
“His family is steeped in hurling.”
The huge challenge that O’Loughlin Gaels pose is clear. This is their third senior county final in four years to go along with the titles they’ve won over the last 12 months. Thomastown have not contested a senior final in 36 years and their last senior county title was in 1946.
Along with the Ballyhale win this year, Walsh also points to their clash with Dicksboro in the final round of group games where Dicksboro were fighting for their senior status. That game ended in defeat for Thomastown but it was “a huge learning” for them.
Tomorrow, they will pit twelve months worth of momentum against O’Loughlin Gael’s winning experience in hopes of proving the doubters wrong, and winning the top prize in the year of their promotion.
They’ve been trying to win over the crowd. Now is there chance.
