By Cian O’Connell

In Mayo Gaelic Football will always be placed high on the agenda, but this has been a particularly interesting stint for Kilmaine.

Capturing the Connacht Junior Football Championship title in 2019 brought real joy, with an AIB All Ireland Club Semi-Final appearance now looming against Kerry’s Na Gaeil at Cusack Park on Saturday afternoon.

That is the next daunting challenge facing Kilmaine’s collection of established and emerging players. Brian Maloney and Pat Kelly featured in the 2004 All Ireland Final for Mayo, while significant expectation is attached to the future of Oisin Mullin.

“It is a great time, the club is in a great place at the moment,” manager David O’Loughlin admits. “We have a great range with lads that did play for Mayo still playing for us.

“We are lucky to have them, it is great to have them alongside the young lads coming through. Oisin Mullin is a fine young player and hopefully he will be in the red and green of Mayo for years to come. There is a great buzz around with the club being in an All Ireland semi-final. Hopefully on Saturday we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the 60 minutes.”

O’Loughlin has delivered in a plethora of roles on and off the field of play for Kilmaine so is delighted to be simply concentrating on preparing the team now.

“I've stepped down as the Chairman, I was the Chairman up until last year,” O’Loughlin says. “I have stepped away from that, it is just the way it happened at the end of the year last year going into the management. It is busy, but when you enjoy doing it you have to say it doesn't seem as bad.”

O'Loughlin is encouraged by how the current crop is developing and they have been highly competitive in the Mayo junior ranks.

“We got to a County Final in 2017,” O’Loughlin states. “It was probably one we left after us because we had the lead in that game. Things went against us, and we lost in the end.

“Then in 2018 we fell at the quarter final unexpectedly. We were caught on the day by Achill, but they deserved to beat us on the day. So we had no qualms about that. No matter what grade you are in a Championship is awful hard to win any year.”

Emigration has hurt Kilmaine considerably, while the fact that players were also based elsewhere in the country.

“I know Pat and Brian were with Vincent's, but we have been more hit by emigration to America, England, and Australia in recent years,” O’Loughlin acknowledges.

“Players have just gone on their travels, that is part and parcel of rural Ireland. In every club if you speak to anyone they are all affected by that. It is something you have to deal with and hope that lads can stay around, work locally, and make a living locally. You can't really control it, you just have to deal with it.”

That is precisely what Kilmaine have done. O’Loughlin is adamant that young footballers are being crafted which will help to build for the future.

“We aren't doing too bad as a small rural club,” O’Loughlin’s responds. “We are amalgamated at underage, but we have just been lucky that we have good people involved in bringing the players through.

“There is time being put into it and it is helping both clubs. It has really benefitted ourselves in the last number of years with the young lads coming through. There is good work being done.

“For ourselves we just want to progress the club as far as we can. We want to be playing at the higher levels, that would be the aim, to get up to the next level by consolidating our place first and then seeing what happens over the next few years with lads coming through.

“You take it from there. With a rural club it really is year by year just seeing what comes through. Hopefully the lads are still there come the start of the next year.”

Ultimately that process has been assisted by John Donnellan’s coaching role with Kilmaine. O’Loughlin highlights the impact made by the former Galway forward, who has forged a strong connection with the Kilmaine panel.

“In the last year John has been very good, he brings a great knowledge of the game,” O’Loughlin remarks.

“He has a great background in football with all the teams he has been involved with. He has brought an awful lot to it, he has great enthusiasm for the game. He rubs off on lads, he is that sort of a character. He is a big character around the place and the lads have great time for him.”

It has been a memorable spell for Kilmaine with O’Loughlin, who has endured demanding days and enjoyed the good ones, thrilled to be part of this journey.

“Very much so, after winning the Connacht title there was a great buzz around the place,” O’Loughlin comments.

“Leading into Christmas there was a lot of talk about this game. The people of the parish and the supporters of the club are looking forward to making the trip on Saturday. Hopefully they will be very vocal, to give us that extra push that might be needed to ger over the line.”