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Kilkenny's Kieran Joyce. INPHO/James Crombie
Club Cat

It's All-Ireland club rather than Kilkenny pre-season that's Kieran Joyce's January focus

Joyce’s club Rower-Insitioge take on Clooney Gaels in tomorrow’s intermediate hurling semi-final.

HE WASN’T INVOLVED last Sunday as Kilkenny limbered up at the start of 2014 with a comfortable win over Dublin IT.

He won’t be togging out in Freshford tomorrow as Brian Cody’s side take on Galway.

And as the Cats are starting to bounce back in 2014, Kieran Joyce is absent from the pre-season grind.

The excuse is perfectly valid though. The 26 year-old has other hurling matters to tend to. Tomorrow he’ll fetch up in Páirc Tailteann in Navan, the heartbeat of the Rower-Inistioge side that take on Antrim’s Clooney Gaels in the AIB All-Ireland intermediate hurling semi-final.

“I’m missing out on some heavy training alright”, laughs Joyce. “I haven’t been in at all with Kilkenny this year. But it’s a nice position to be in with the club in the All-Ireland series.”

Joyce nailed down a starting spot on the Kilkenny side that won the 2012 All-Ireland. He has All-Ireland U21 titles to his credit and captained UL to win the Fitzgibbon Cup three years ago. But a lack of success with his club, the home of the legendary Eddie Keher, grated.

“Eddie helped the Rower get up senior when he was playing and we were stuck in intermediate ever since. We knew last year was make or break. You’d a lot of older lads on the team who’d been through disappointments and we had to make it count at some stage.”

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UL captain Kieran Joyce lifts the Fitzgibbon Cup in 2011
Pic: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

They made their mark last winter. They staved off the challenge of Emeralds, inspired by Aidan ‘Taggy’ Fogarty, to win the Kilkenny intermediate title. Then Kildare’s Celbridge and Wexford’s Buffers Alley were overcome to triumph in Leinster. They entered the novel situation at Christmas of looking forward in expectation to an All-Ireland series.

“It’s been different for us but we want to keep it going. Thomastown, who are near us in Kilkenny, won an All-Ireland junior last year. I’d be good friends with Jonjo Farrell, who’s in with the Kilkenny seniors at the moment, and I saw how much that win meant to him and the lads.

“We’ve been training hard, using various pitches around the place in recent weeks. We’d a good workout with Mount Leinster Rangers in a challenge as well. They’ve had a great year as well so we were both going all out.”

Joyce’s current hunger for hurling stems in part from how Kilkenny fared last season. Their summer ended unusually early without a customary Croke Park appearance. Rower-Inistioge proved a welcome sanctuary.

“You don’t see much of the club when you’re with the county so it was great to get an extended run at it. It definitely spurred me on. I’ve really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to playing in Navan.”

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Kieran Joyce celebrating Kilkenny’s 2012 All-Ireland win with Jackie Tyrrell and Henry Shefflin
Pic: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan

Kilkenny’s Rower-Inistioge lift the Leinster intermediate hurling club crown

Who’ll bag trips to Croke Park for the AIB All-Ireland intermediate and junior finals?