Current M Donnelly Poc Fada All Ireland champion Cillian Kiely, left, with his brother and 2019 Leinster champion, Cathal Kiely, and their parents Mary and Seamus Kiely.
By Michael Devlin
Big brothers are often looked up to by their younger siblings, to be idolised and copied, and to be challenged and bettered.
Cathal Kiely watched his elder brother Cillian win back-to-back All-Ireland Poc Fada U16 titles in 2011 and 2012, setting the course record of 22 pucks on the second instance.
It set the bar for young Cathal, six years younger than Cillian, and when the time then came to see if he could the match up, he was not to be outdone. Just like his big brother, the Offaly youngster captured successive titles in 2016 and 2017, shooting 22 on both occasions. ‘Anything you can do, I can do better’, so the song goes.
The Kilcormac-Killoughey siblings will now go toe-to-toe for the first time in the senior All-Ireland Poc Fada, which takes place again this weekend up on Annaverna in Louth’s Cooley Mountains. Cathal qualifies as the 2019 Leinster champion, while Cillian is back to retain the All-Ireland title he won last year.
“There’ll be a lot of tension I suppose, a lot of build-up,” said the younger Kiely. “It’s great that the two of us are in it for once competing in the same competition.
“It was kind of special that we have the two things. I suppose there was a lot of talk that the two of us would be in the senior Poc Fada someday, and now it’s here, I suppose there will be a lot of people looking out for us and see what way we come in.
“When he did it, I got my chance, and I went along and luckily enough, I did it twice as well, so there’s not bragging rights over each other. He was delighted for me at the same time, but still, he probably wanted to be one up.”
Cillian Kiely in action on the Annaverna Mountain on his way to winning the 2018 M Donnelly GAA All-Ireland Poc Fada.
“Pucking against Cathal won’t be easy either, the two of us would be fairly similar puck-wise,” says Cillian, who as reigning senior champion pucks off last on the day in a competitive field that includes record winner Brendan Cummins and Cork sharp-shooter Patrick Horgan. He will be keeping a close eye on his kid brother however.
“There’s six years between us, so it’s kind of only now that he’s turned 18 that he’s grown up, we are hurling together now with the club. Before this I was looking out for him, and now he’s right up there with me. It’ll be enjoyable to strike a few balls during the week in practice.”
“He’s not giving up any time soon, he’s pushing all the time. It’s great for him, and the mother and father really enjoy it. It’s great that you can give something back from your parents.
“The father played a bit of hurling for Offaly and played for the club, and our house would be mad GAA. I don’t know how many more years he can go around that mountain, it is hard going!” laughs Cillian.
“The mother will go halfway, she doesn’t do the whole course but she’ll be watching us go across the top of the mountain. Then everyone disappears, you’re that high up!”
Cathal Kiely, with Poc Fada sponsor Martin Donnelly of MD Sport, after winning the U16 title in 2016.
The Kielys’ love affair with the long puck game began when Cillian won a community games Poc Fada at U12 level. A few years later, he was entered into the juvenile competition by his club, not knowing where it would lead to.
“I was told, ‘Up in the Curragh, seven o’clock’,” said Cillian. “So I done the puck, and it went fierce well, I won it.
“We were on the mountain before we knew it. We went up the night before, and we definitely thought we were lost. We couldn’t find the course, but we were actually standing on it. The next day we went up and did the competition, and I won that. It just got going from there, and it’s grown on us.”
The brothers, both free-takers, honed their striking ability from a young age. “We always found we could strike it a lot further than other people,” says Cathal.
But the competition isn’t all about who can belt the sliotar the farthest distance. There is a nuanced approach to navigating the Poc Fada course that Cillian says he has observed from watching the masters at work.
“You’re striking your distance all the time, but you are placing your ball as well. You’re definitely trying to pick patches that you are trying to get a run at.
“I learned a good bit from Cummins in the way he approached it. My first time doing the senior course and watching him, I was kind of gobsmacked the way things worked, I learnt as I went along.
“Ninety per cent of the competition will be able to strike the ball over 100 yards every time, but it’s your consistency and the routes you take is what wins it at the end of the day.”
