Battle-hardened Killilea set for another County title assault
THERE are not too many defenders in the county who like shadowing Gort powerhouse Paul Killilea and, if they do, they are borderline crazy. For while Killilea may now be the age of Christ – 33 – his physical strength – in ruck ball and in the air – raw aggression, work-rate and experience marks him out as one of the top club players locally.
In this year’s county semi-final, Killilea was introduced at half-time and when the first ball landed on his head, he snapped it cleanly out of the air. Good teams have those players. Kevin ‘Chunky’ Hayes in Portumna; Johnny Maher in Loughrea; and Jamie Ryan in Craughwell. They are the ‘Go-To’ men in terms of winning the hard ball in times of trouble.
What they also have in common is that they are fierce competitors, ruthlessly so, but to understand where Paul Killilea’s raging ambition comes from you have to jump back into those years when Gort struggled to make the breakthrough. He did not grow up on the stable diet of success that the younger players in the current Gort senior squad have been privileged to be born into today.
Indeed, his past and present are like chalk and cheese. “We are making strides now but there has been a lot of hard graft and you look back down through the years when you started out and there were a lot of disappointment,” says Killilea, who chases his third SHC medal this Sunday.
“I suppose, at the time (early to mid-2000s), we got to semi-finals, but we could never get over that hurdle. Then, in 2008, we finally did, unexpectedly, but, in hindsight, it was perhaps a couple of years too soon because we had such a young team and we were playing a Portumna team at the height of their powers.
“Of course, all you can do is aspire to get to that level. In 2008, Portumna, as we said, were in their prime and we were going in there to contest our first county final in 25 years. So, there was plenty of hype and excitement and it was easy to get distracted. No matter how much you try to protect yourself from it, you are going to be around town or have people out at training. So, it wasn’t easy.”
When the final whistle blew at the end of the 2008 decider, Gort were soundly beaten, losing 1-18 to 2-7. Despite being on level terms at the interval, it all began to unravel when Andy Smith pounced for a 36th minute Portumna goal. The All-Ireland champions subsequently turned the screw. Joe Canning and Damien Hayes finished with 14 points between them.
However, it was by and large a young Gort team that took the field that day, underlined by the fact that no less than 11 of the players who saw action in the 2008 final could also potentially see game-time on Sunday.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.