If you were to check the history books, you’d do well to find a brother pairing who captained separate clubs to county final titles, especially one year after another.
Well, that’s what happened to former Kilkenny hurler Brian Hogan and his brother Keith.
Keith led Clara to the title in 2015 while Brian lifted the Tom Walsh Cup in 2016.
The previous year of course had been a bitter one for Brian as O’Loughlin Gaels lost the county final.
Clara was the defending champions in 2016, however, they were defeated by Ballyhale Shamrocks in the semi-final while O’Loughlin Gaels won the championship after a 0-19 to 1-12 defeat of Ballyhale Shamrocks.
The background to how the brothers ended up playing for different clubs comes from when Brian was born, the Hogan family lived in Kilkenny city and he played for O’Loughlin Gaels, then the family then moved to Clara before Keith was born.
Brian continued to play for his club as he went to St John’s NS in Kilkenny city while Keith went to primary school in Clara and kept with the club.
Speaking on the Clash Act Podcast about the two year period where they both captained their clubs, Brian said:
2015 Final
“It was a difficult one because obviously for him he was trying to make his own mark and it was a big deal, you kind of had to set that aside on the day of the match and park it as much and possible and he did too,” said Brian.
“To be honest on the day neither of us set the world alight, he hit his frees and hit them well and we got a little bit of ball each but neither of us ran amuck, we kind of cancelled each other out, well that’s my recollection anyway”.
“It was one of those things, you just try and park it, and as far as I was concerned, that was the mindset going out, the guys I was playing for were the guys in the dressing room with me, and I’m sure he was the same, on the other side of the wall”.
“It was after the match, I was devastated, it’s so hard to bloody win a county final in Kilkenny and to get to a county final and with his teammates, and to lose a county final, it’s tough to take at the best of times, I was pretty down but you kind of have to, kind of acknowledge that the brother was after having the highlight of his career and he was getting the opportunity to go up and pick up the cup”.
2016 Final
“I suppose I was fortunate in retrospect that the following year that I got to experience that, we got to get back to the county final the year I was captain”.
“So on successive years, the two of us went up and picked up the Tom Walsh Cup, so that’s a lovely memory a lovely thing to be able to look back on, that we both got to experience it”.
“At the time it wasn’t lovely, it was pretty horrendous having to do the short walk back up to the club when you lost a county final, you park these things and move on, it’s just one of those things”.
Listen back to the podcast below:
