Inside Track with John McIntyre

IN the spring of 2025, Loughrea would only have been dreaming of playing in an All-Ireland Club hurling final. Sure, you could see they were assembling a decent team but in the context of ‘The Town’s history – just two county senior titles – the club was far from a winning machine at the highest level.

We are trying to put into context what the latest generation of Loughrea hurlers have achieved over the past 18 months. Winning Galway titles back-to-back represents a massive achievement, and they subsequently performed with honour in both All-Ireland championship campaigns.

As it transpired, 2025 was probably the year Loughrea let the Tommy Moore Cup slip through their fingers. On the run of play, they should have beaten Na Fianna in the semi-final at Semple Stadium and it’s not hard to imagine that Tommy Kelly’s team would have had the capacity to take down Sarsfields of Cork in the final.

You might think the experience of that campaign would have left Loughrea even better placed for the current championship, but Ballygunner were back on the scene after reclaiming the Munster title – their fifth provincial triumph in seven years – and the Waterford men were driven to prove that they were no under-achievers.

That tag reflected winning only a solitary All-Ireland in the past, but Ballygunner have a huge chest of experience, together with being backboned by a host of inter-county players. They are playing so long together their players are on the same wavelength and know what to expect from each other.

On the other hand, Loughrea are still learning at this level. They naturally would have thought after coming out of Galway for a second consecutive year that their path to All-Ireland glory might be less arduous, but sport doesn’t work out like that. In hindsight, we over-rated their comprehensive victory over Slaughtneil in the semi-final.

The Derry club deserves huge admiration, but their team is in decline and, of course, Loughrea would have been rattled by the late dismissal of Cullen Killeen. The protracted appeal process ahead of the final would have done them no favours either. It had to be a distraction and the young midfielder must have been left tormented over the prospect of missing the All-Ireland final.

Pictured: Cullen Killeen of Loughrea is chased by Ballygunner’s Michael Mahony during Sunday’s All-Ireland Club Senior Hurling Final at Croke Park.