Preview: Ellistown going for the Kill to get back to Intermediate

This year’s Tom Cross Transport Junior Football Championship sees losing 2022 finalists Kill face last year’s relegated side from Intermediate Ellistown.

Kill came through a wind-swept encounter with red hot Grangenolvin with an 0-12 to 0-9 win to secure their spot in the decider. Kill reduced Grange’s star man Fionn Bergin to six points, which all came from free-kicks.

The underdogs were good value for their win, but as Grange’ legend Fran Miller theorised in his Love of the Game interview “it comes in 20-year cycles” and Grange’s last Junior Championship win was in 2005. So if Fran is to be believed, it won't be too long a wait for the losing semi-finalists to wait.

Although deemed as underdogs pre-match, Ellistown manager Gavin Holligan said that their final opponents’ semi-final win came as no shock to them. He said, “In the 11 games we played in the league this year, Kill were one of the most impressive we have seen. They were well-drilled, young and fit as well. They know what they are good at and I wasn’t a bit shocked by it at all.”

Kill finished third in JFC Group ‘A’ losing to Grange’ and Athgarvan on their way, but they appear to be able to produce when it matters most and a huge factor in that is the reliable boot of Paul Kirwan. The Kill free-taker is rarely profligate in front of the posts and adds plenty from play too, typically receiving the ball to hand before spinning and firing over. It’s that simple, Kirwan is a classic GAA forward and the simplicity of his game is part of its appeal.

Despite the concession of goals here and there, Kill do not give up too many white flags. Only Athgarvan have put more than 10 points on the board against the 2024 finalists this year. That limiting of quality shots at their posts will be all the more welcome in a final sure to be full of nerves.

Kill manager Alan Jordan explained, “If you look at our score against ratio last year, it was shocking. We have worked on it and we met as a management team in December and as a group of players in early January. To follow that up, we have worked on plans and in training, but we also have really good defenders and one that wasn’t in the team last year (Mark Lee) and one that was just coming through (Finn Ryan). They have both grown into young men this year alongside Kevin Corrigan, Luke Purcell and the rest.”

Defensive diligence doesn’t just come from rehearsals in training however and the introduction of Niall Barrett to the men’s side of Kill GAA has brought them up a notch.

Kill sharpshooter Paul Kirwan added, “As someone who wouldn’t be overly fond of doing the fitness work it has been a bit of an eye-opener, but Niall is brilliant.

As well as the fitness, he is talking to us about the mental side of it. He is coaching winners, people like Gary Cully, and for people like myself who would have played GAA previously as a pastime, I am now talking to him about nutrition and things that we wouldn’t have really thought about before. Especially for the lads who are getting a bit older now, it is brilliant to work with someone like that.

“The ladies team, since I have been here, have been putting it well beyond where we have. We got relegated to Junior here five years ago and I think the ladies have won four Championships since. We just want a little bit of that.”

Current Kill men’s manager Alan Jordan was a part of that journey too winning Junior A, B and C with the ladies side, a team that have recently secured their Senior status for 2025 with an Intermediate Championship final win over Balyna.

Their opponents Ellistown booked their spot in this year’s final with a 2-9 to 1-8 win over Castlemitchell. In stark contrast to their opponents, they have won every game of their campaign so far. That statistic undoubtedly has to be caveated by their presence in the weaker JFC Group B. Ellistown finished their group stage campaign with four wins from four with a +68 score difference.

Ellistown captain Conor Lindy said, “We had to start from scratch after getting relegated last year. We know ourselves that it was disappointing going down from Intermediate, but we had a meeting at the start of the year about what we wanted and training has been excellent since.”

Ellistown are much harder to evaluate from their group stages games, but they did show their mettle in their only knockout game to hold off Castlemitchell.

Seemingly cruising, Ellistown led 2-9 to 0-4 with 46 minutes on the clock. Castlemitchell added points through Ross and James Harris and won two penalties late on, with Evan Doogue scoring one and Oran Donnelly saving the other. The eventual winners stayed four clear until full-time, but did not score for the final 16 minutes of this game.

Ellistown manager Gavin Holligan gave his thoughts on his side’s toughest game in the Championship to this point. He said, “It was great. They showed great resilience in that last 15 minutes and more so into that last five minutes. It was nervous enough and Castlemitchell had that missed penalty as well so, as I said to the boys, we can speak in hypotheticals all week long, but if they had scored that penalty it is a one-point game from being 11 up with 15 minutes to go. To be fair though, they showed huge resilience in the end to grind it out. It will stand to them.”

After stiffer Championship tests and a Junior final two years ago, I am picking Kill to have the goods and lift the Noel Moran Cup in 2024.

No result is anywhere near certain and a crucial match for both club’s is down for decision in what should be an enthralling encounter this Saturday in Manguard Park, Hawkfield.