Kilkenny's Kerryman Created Interesting Piece Of History In Leinster Final Win

When Kilkenny won their sixth Leinster title in a row on Sunday afternoon there was a little bit of history created by Fionán Mackessy as he became the first player from outside Kilkenny to win a Leinster title since 1927.

On that day in 1927, the man in question was Connie Keane. As Christy O'Connor wrote in The Examiner last weekend, Keane was a Tipperary native and as a soldier was based in Kilkenny city before eventually moving back to Tipperary to hurl with Thurles Sarsfields.

Mackessy is a Kerry native and transferred to O'Loughlin Gaels last year from his home club St Brendan's Ardfert, Mackessy was then called into the Kilkenny squad by Derek Lyng. This made him the first Kerry man to represent Kilkenny.

Mackessy played fifty-three league and Championship games for The Kingdom and won five Joe McDonagh All-Star awards in five seasons at that level.

His transfer to Kilkenny raised plenty of eyebrows as he was joining the reigning county and provincial champions in O'Loughlin Gaels at the time.

Mackessy started three of Kilkenny's group games against Galway, Antrim and Wexford whilst also coming on as a sub against Offaly and Dublin. He was an unused sub in Sunday's Leinster final decider win over Galway but that didn't stop him from becoming the first outside player to win a Leinster medal with Kilkenny in 98 years.

Kilkenny is a county that hasn't benefitted from many intercounty transfers which is why Mackessy's selection following his transfer caused some discussion.

Famously Dublin lined out for the 2013 Leinster hurling final with Ryan O’Dwyer, Niall Corcoran and Maurice O’Brien all part of Anthony Daly's squad, having played with Tipperary, Galway and Limerick previously.

Even more recently than that Jack Fagan of Waterford originally lined out for Meath before making the switch.

Cork has benefitted as they picked up former player and manager John Meyler from Wexford in the 1980s and Mark Mullins from Carlow in the 1990s.