There was no better way to mark their 100th anniversary than by winning the Kilkenny intermediate hurling championship and that is exactly what Danesfort did on Sunday.
A 1-36 to 4-25 defeat of Thomastown after extra-time saw Niall Bergin’s side claim their first county title since 2011 as they secured their return to the senior grade.
Experienced players such as Richie Hogan, Paul Murphy and Paddy Hogan were key to their success along with a cluster of young players who have consistently performed from the first round of the league onwards.
Speaking to Scoreline after the decider, former Kilkenny All-Ireland winner Paul Murphy touched on a “draining” encounter with Thomastown, the importance of getting match-ups right and the added bonus of winning the county title a century on from their inception.
He began: “I don’t know what it looked like from the sideline but it was just such a relentless game. It was end-to-end and it was such a draining game.
“Both teams were fighting for every ball and they were relentless. The entire game is a blur and that goes to show how intense it was.”
Murphy reserved a special mention for Des Dunne after the decider.
“Thomastown had a few things they wanted to do to draw our backs out and we knew that and we had our own tactics too which were brilliant.
“The importance of Des Dunne sticking with John Donnelly can’t be underestimated because John is such a great player but Des did a great job on him today.”
He didn’t downplay the importance of the victory either as they now have a first provincial campaign in more than a decade to look forward to.
“It couldn’t be any sweeter. There’s no fairytales in sport and we had no right to win it because we were celebrating 100 years as a club but we have celebrated that a lot and we’re proud of our club.
“We all have our own histories and you couldn’t write what happened today.”
He finally gave an insight into the importance of the younger members in the panel.
“The younger players were immense.
“We have leaders amongst that cohort of players and they’ve stood up throughout the season which has been crucial to bring us so far and obviously to get over the line today.”
