AIL title 'would mean everything' to Cork Con and Jack Kelleher

Coming into the 2022/23 Energia All-Ireland League season, the biggest question was whether anybody could stop Terenure and Clontarf from a third final date in a row.

The two Dublin sides had finished first and second in the table in each of the two previous seasons, before sharing a title apiece in two pulsating Aviva Stadium finals.

Knocking on the door were Cork Constitution. Fourth in 2022, they lost out to Tarf in the semi-final at Castle Avenue, before another semi-final loss followed last season against Nure. Both times, their campaign was ended by the eventual champions.

Winners back in 2019, the six-time champions will rightfully be aggrieved to not have seven titles; they had won 14 out of 14 and were runaway leaders at the top of Division 1A when the season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

The 2020/21 campaign was also lost to Covid, and by the time the league finally resumed in the autumn of 2021, Con were in something of a rebuilding phase.

Having either won or finished runner-up 13 times in 31 seasons, Cork Con don't necessarily do periods of 'transition', and it felt like only a matter of time before they would be back contesting the final.

Try and try again has been the message, and last Saturday's enthralling 40-34 semi-final win against Tarf in Temple Hill has brought them back to showpiece, where they meet Terenure this Sunday (4pm).

The difference between this year and those past?

"Just that extra year of experience," is the verdict of vice-captain Jack Kelleher.

"A year in the AIL means a lot. You're playing 18 games, a lot of experience. We’ve a young enough pack, so that extra year to put on maybe a couple of kilos in weight but more experience.

"We had quite a young squad and a