The disappointment of being relegated last year drives Borris/Kilcotton to get back to the top

THE atmosphere in the Borris/Kilcotton camp is currently very positive and Jer Quinlan shared that the team feels they are “kind of peaking at the right time”. He acknowledged that while they were “shaky enough and not too impressed” with their performance against Clough/Ballacolla in the championship, they still managed to secure the win.

“We know there are things to work on, and we were impressed with our performance against Camross. I think we're building at the right time now; everyone's fit and ready to go.” Reflecting on the previous year, Quinlan expressed the disappointment of being relegated. “It was devastating last year to go down. It wasn't how we planned the year to go at all, and we kind of just were on a bit of a downward trajectory last year even from the first round.” However, he emphasised the resolve within the team, noting, “we just said to ourselves in the dressing room after that we need to stick together, and that's how we'll get back up to where we deserve to be and want to be.” Quinlan acknowledged the unusual position of being “red hot favourites” for every game. “It's a weird position to be in,” he admitted. “But we're just setting high standards for ourselves and going for a performance every game. Even though we got a lot of scores against Ballacolla, we wanted to implement our game plan and perform, and that's just been our goal through every game, taking one game at a time.” Now, the team is focused on their upcoming match against Ballinakill, hoping to replicate that level of performance in the final.

When discussing the upcoming final against Ballinakill, Quinlan noted the balanced competition between the teams.

“They've got a few county players, I think they've four, and we have three, so it's very evenly matched with the county players. It's going to be the rest of the lads around the middle and that'll be the winning and losing of it. There'll be a hero on the day that I think no one will predict, and that's the way finals usually go.” While contemplating the future, Quinlan mentioned that moving back up to the Senior Championship and competing in county finals is “not something we're talking about”, yet he acknowledged it’s “kind of in everyone's head”.

He emphasised that while they know they are good enough, their immediate focus is on defeating Ballinakill first. “We definitely feel if we go back up, we want to be competing for finals, not just be up there and to be out of the Premier Intermediate. We want to be up there competing and winning.” Quinlan concluded by highlighting the significance of winning the cup for Borris/Kilcotton.

“It'd be absolutely massive for not just even the players playing on the day, just for the whole club morale, for the juveniles and everything. We know we're promoted already, but our main goal now is to win the finals. Promotion's not in our heads; it's to win this final and get a cup back to the club because we should be getting them already. We got to a few finals over the years, so we're trying to right the wrongs now.”