HOW do you follow the greatest season in your club’s history? That’s the challenge for Kilbrittain hurlers.

Their heroics last season are the stuff of legend – the hurlers from a village in football-dominated West Cork who lifted county, Munster and All-Ireland junior hurling cups.

Now it’s time to make new memories, as Kilbrittain move up to intermediate A level, beginning life here against Russell Rovers in Ballinhassig this Sunday (4.30pm). A derby with Bandon, and a tie with Aghada follow.

For Kilbrittain, the confidence gained from their dream season is something they hope can propel them forward.

‘I suppose there is a confidence there because there’s evidence now. There’s a reference point. They’ve produced performances and they’ve gotten wins,’ manager Joe Ryan says.

‘We’d reference a lot the way teams play against us now and compare it to last year. A certain team might try to play a particular way against us and we’d look back at games like Davidstown, the county semi-final against Ballygarvan or the All-Ireland final. We dug those games out, so we’d use them as reference points.

‘We can’t continually rely on that though. There has to be evidence from this year as well. We got snippets of that in the league. Players like Eoghan Byrne, Adam Griffin and a few others who were maybe on the periphery last year got game time this year, and I’d say they carried that confidence over and did very well for us.

‘It’s certainly a reference point and it gives us confidence, but at the same time we need to see evidence this year as well that the appetite is still there.’

Bertie Butler has gone travelling this year so is not available. (Photo: Paddy Feen)

Momentum is an unquantifiable factor here too. The success Kilbrittain enjoyed last season can act as a slingshot, powering the team forward.

Ryan feels they had momentum in the early stage of the Division 5 county league, beating Midleton and Tracton in their opening two games. But then came a drop-off – Kilbrittain won only one of their next seven games.

In a sense, it’s understandable. Trying to go to the well again so soon after winning an All-Ireland in the longest season of these players’ careers was always going to be a huge ask. Factor in retirements and players taking a break.

‘I think it’s hard for momentum to carry from one year to the next,’ he muses.

‘This season is certainly a challenge. I said to the lads at the start of the year that there isn’t a playbook for it. You kind of have to go by what they are telling me and telling us.

‘We probably rode off the All-Ireland win a little bit at the start of the league with our results. We got a bounce from it. But the league is nine games and it’s a bit of a slog. Lads were going on holidays, there were different things along the way, and a few lads retired from last year as well, so it was always going to take its toll at some stage.

‘Look, we stayed safe in the league, which was probably the primary aim, and we gave plenty of lads game time. Overall, it was extremely positive because we were coming off the back of something incredible.‘

Transferring what they learned last season to a higher grade, Kilbrittain are stepping into the unknown somewhat, but they’ll bring the same energy, approach and work-rate – they are their controllables.

‘Again, I’m probably going back to the fact that there’s evidence from last year that we can do it. We can grind out games, play in different ways and play against different types of teams. But that’s very different to actually going out and doing it at a higher grade.

‘The quality of opposition is higher and, in particular, the depth of the three clubs we're playing is greater than what we faced last year. So we just have to knuckle down and put our best foot forward.’

Kilbrittain have also lost a lot of experience from the squad. Tomás Harrington and Declan Harrington, who both came on in the All-Ireland final against Easkey, have retired. So too has Nick O’Donovan. Bertie Butler has gone travelling and isn’t expected to feature in the championship, though last season’s captain Philip Wall is in line to return after a spell in Australia. Also, Conor Ustianowski and Charlie Kenny, both on J1s, will miss the first round.

‘We were going through the team the other night. If you look at it, the five or six subs we used last year actually aren’t available to us for the start of the championship. Now, some of them are coming back,’ Ryan says.

‘Tom Harrington, Dec Harrington and Nick O'Donovan have retired after giving unbelievable service. Last year I probably leaned heavily on them because they were the older statesmen.

‘You’re looking at numbers 17 to 22 for us from last year. Different lads got exposed this year, some did very well and some probably learned a lot from it.

‘We just have to get on with it, back the lads and use the confidence from last year, while hopefully having done the work this year.’

Their heroics haven’t been forgotten, but it’s time to go again, confident in the knowledge that they have already shown what is possible.