BY KIERAN McCARTHY
HE’LL admit it’s been a stop-start championship campaign on a personal level, but Michael Hurley is hopeful the best days are still ahead.
After the Castlehaven vice-captain (28) played the full opening game against Clonakilty and kicked four points, he went off injured in the first half of the next outing against St Michael’s and came on as a 59th-minute sub in the final group win against Carbery Rangers, with Haven boss Seanie Cahalane explaining Hurley didn’t start as a precaution.
Frustrating times for the Castlehaven sharpshooter who lit up his club’s county-winning campaign last year.
‘I’m just managing an ongoing injury,’ he says, ‘I haven't played a lot of games so preparation hasn’t really been ideal, but that’s the way it goes. We’re getting there though.’
With a four-week break between Castlehaven’s third group win, against Carbery Rangers, and Sunday’s Cork Premier SFC semi-final against St Finbarr’s at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (4.15pm, live on Rebels Online), the hope is Hurley is ready to be unleashed this week – and the city side know all the damage an in-form Hurley can inflect.
Michael Hurley scored 0-7 against Barrs in last season's county semi-final.
In last season’s county semi-final between these two heavyweights – and this will be the fifth year in a row they’ve clashed at the same stage – the youngest of the Hurley brothers was the star of the show. He kicked seven points, including six from play, as Castlehaven beat the Barrs 1-16 to 2-11 on their way to a first county senior title in a decade. He was also man-of-the-match in the county final against Nemo, kicking another five points on that occasion. All proof that this match-winner is one of the top club forwards in the county, and has been since he burst on the scene as a 17-year-old when Haven won the 2013 county title.
Hurley is slow to rate his own performance in the semi-final against the Barrs last season, but does admit it was one of the good days. Castlehaven will need their top guns, like the Hurley brothers in attack, firing on all cylinders if they want to repeat last year’s semi-final win against the Barrs, which was Hurley’s favourite of the four games between the two to date.
‘I have to say last year when we came out on top and didn’t put our supporters under the pressure of penalties,’ he says.
‘The last four years, regardless of the results, these are great games to be part of and there’s huge respect between both teams.’
But what makes these two teams such good dance partners? Fans have been treated to two penalty shoot-outs (one win apiece), a four-point Barrs victory and a two-point Haven win. Fine margins.
‘They are two proud football teams who play a good brand of football and it seems to create a great visual for the neutral. Two competitive teams who have high aspirations and who go hammer and tongs at it – that’s good ingredients,’ Hurley says, and the Castlehaven hope is that they can thread together back-to-back semi-final wins against the Barrs. The West Cork men are favourites to hold on to their county title, and they’re coming off the back of a 100 percent record in the group stages, but Hurley insists reigning Munster and county champions Haven are still a work in progress.
‘We’re moving in the right direction, but on the outside looking in there is a lot of talk that we are moving really well. If you look on paper and see the last three results, you can’t argue with that, but if you dig into it we are coming off our worst half of football in a long time against Carbery Rangers in the second half,’ he says, as they scored only three second-half points in that 0-14 to 0-9 win, and Ross outscored them by five points to three in the second period. Perhaps having already qualified for the knock-out stages blunted Haven’s edge that day.
‘Getting to the semi-final is great but we’ve found the four-week break a little difficult. We haven’t got a bye into the semi-final in a while and it’s just been a bit of a struggle with training. Our junior team is going well (Castlehaven are into the Carbery JAFC semi-final) and that’s a positive for Castlehaven, and it’s also had an impact on senior training.
‘The Barrs are coming off exactly what we did last year, a good win against Ballincollig in the quarter-finals, and they will have loads of momentum. It’s a good contrast, to see the difference in preparation and then see how it impacts the teams.’
Even with Michael Hurley’s role in the group stages restricted, Castlehaven were still the top scorers (3-50), with Jack Cahalane (2-8), Brian Hurley (0-13, 8f) and Mícheál Maguire 1-2 leading the way. A fit Michael Hurley will bolster that firepower even more, especially if he rediscovers the form that made him so formidable in last season’s match to county and provincial glory.
