Kennedy privileged to work with Kilmurry

NOW a double championship winning manager with Kilmurry Ibrickane, John Kennedy was not prepared to accept much credit. The Kerry man was, however, very happy to laud his players and the Kilmurry club.
“The work these lads have put in is incredible. In two years they’ve six cups won in Clare. These lads and their club are superb. They have the hunger and will to keep coming back. These guys are winners and it’s a privilege to be with them,” he said. 
“There was a lot of criticism of our defence after the Kilrush game and rightly so. But we spoke about it during the week and you saw the way they stood up today. I think the first one or two balls that went in early on, Darren (Hickey) broke them or won them and we picked up the breaks and that set the tone.
“Our first half performance gave us the cushion,” Kennedy added.
Although wearing number 11, Michael O’Dwyer played much of the game at corner-forward, while he also roamed when the ball wasn’t coming in. He acknowledged that Kilmurry’s seven-point half-time lead was going to be difficult to eat into.
“We had the wind in the first half and we got a few scores up. It was going to be hard for Barefield to come back. A seven-point lead is a big lead but having said that we didn’t pull away, unlike last year.
“We only scored two points in the second half and they really came into it. They’ve been in four finals now and are definitely one of the top teams in Clare in the last couple of years. It’s only a matter of time before they get there,” O’Dwyer predicted.
He says the two games against Kilrush sharpened Kilmurry.
“We probably had the momentum going into the game having had the replay. Some people were saying that the extra game might go against us but we felt it probably gave us momentum,” O’Dwyer explained.
Kilmurry will play the Kerry champions in Quilty in the first round of the Munster club championship. That’s not a competition that was occupying Michael O’Dwyer’s thoughts until now though.
“We set out to win a county final. It would be a bit arrogant to be thinking of Munster. As far as we’re concerned, winning the county final is the main thing. After that then we’ll look to the next step,” he said.