Catch Up With Joey Mowlds

It’s a Friday night and when most people are out socialising after a hard weeks work, a young man by the name of Joey Mowlds is sitting in the in auditorium of Cathal Brugha Army Barracks listening to the clubs latest guest speaker Pauric Mc Donald. Pauric is a Coaching & Player Development Specialist who has an impressive CV. The purpose of the meeting is a mentors meeting and strategy discussion.

Joey is not a mentor, but he has great ambitions for his club so decided to pop down. Perched beside his big brother Brian and listening attentively, little did he know he was being watched by a former club hurler who had something in common! Hung on the wall beside him was a picture of Sean Connolly who played with the club over a 100 years and lined out in goal for Dublin Juniors in the 1911 Leinster Championship. A few years later Sean would take part in the 1916 Rising and was the first rebel killed in action. It’s at this point of the story we should point out that the thing they have in common is that they both lined out with the Dubs and played in a Leinster Final.

Joey went one further than Sean, as he has a Leinster Championship winners medal from 2017. He also played in a Leinster League final for Dublin at underage level. However, Sean has something that Joey also craves! Sean was on the Kevin’s squad that won the clubs first Dublin Junior Championship in 1910 and brought Kevins into the senior ranks for the first time in our history. Catching up with Joey in a brief interview, his ambitions for 2025 is to emulate Sean’s achievements and win the Junior Championship.

Joey was delighted to hear that Sean’s great grandson Finn is with club. The “Village In The City” is alive and well and there’s Kevin’s people all round us “It’s amazing to learn the history and also to be part of it it” expressed Joey.

Joey was part of a great underage side in the club that won a Feile title back in 2013. “That was my year when we won in Parnell Park. That with the Leinster league are my proudest moments in hurling so far and hopefully there is more to come God willing ”

Playing alongside him was his brother Brian and they are part of a small group of talented brothers who have both won Feile titles. Others amongst them are the Comerford brother Daniel and Ciaran who also played on that team. The Comerford’s moved to Laois shortly after winning the Feile and were regular features on the Laois Minor, Under 21 and Senior squads. Brian Óg and John Flannery also hold this record as they won Feile Division 2 back in 2005.  Brian Óg is now a veteran on the Junior squad and is also hanging around to bring us back up!

We recently updated our club website listing the hurlers who have won honours at county level. “I’m also glad to get the achievements with Dublin added to the list as it’s something I’m also very proud of that I got to represent Kevin’s from u13s up until minor with Dublin captaining a lot of teams along the way”.

When pressed on the matter of coaching and if he’d be seen on side-line soon Joeys advises that “I’m still focusing on the player aspect at the minute. It’s a goal I have to win a championship at adult level with the club. If you see me on the side line its because I’m not playing well enough. But coaching is something I am definitely interested in for the future so that’s why I am here.” In a seperate catch up, Junior A mentor Pat Power has high praise for Joey. “Not only is Joey a key player for us, but he has the ability to represent the club at county level again.”

Sean Connolly was one of the first Kevin’s men to play with Dublin and Joey is the most recent. Reading about Sean, Joey noted that “it’s great to read about the history of the club and learn how our members contributed over the years. We might not be the biggest club around, but there’s not many that can say their members played such a significant role in society and it makes you proud to be associated with such a club”. Joey’s observations are spot on. We might not be a “super club”, but we are a deadly club with a history to protect and a future to fight for. You can read more about the clubs history and roll of honour by clicking on the links. Hopefully we can add another Junior A title to it soon!

Overall the mentors night was a great success with great attendance! Our guest speaker provided some super insights and working together we have a great opportunity to build on our current coaching platform. The message that Paraic was communicating last night  was, that our journey has started and in a few years we hope to enhance our structures to make the coach and player experience much easier and more enjoyable. As a start, we plan to focus on the Award 1, described by Paraic as “rocket fuel for a club”. Click here for more information. Vice-Chairperson Professor Aidan O’Sullivan – who is a former inter-county hurler himself – is also leading a project to deliver a new club strategy. The last time we agreed a strategy was in 2013, the same year that Joey’s group won their Feile. This year we are refreshing our strategy again and our Feile group are creating their own bit of history as they field 2 teams for the first time ever. While the Feile is a key milestone, we hope to see this group playing in 10-15 years time and initiatives like developing club strategies are important so we are all on the same page and prioritising the right things.