BY JOHN MURPHY
OUTSTANDING Diarmuid Ó Mathúnas centre forward Kevin O’Donovan, scorer of the crucial goal in Sunday’s epic JAHC final replay, is looking forward to the upcoming county series following their Carbery triumph.
One of the rewards for Mathúnas’ title success is a county quarter-final against Mid Cork kingpins Ballinora this weekend.
For O’Donovan and his team-mates, they are ready to embrace this challenge after they finally put to bed all the near misses and disappointments, including the Carbery football final loss a week ago.
‘It is some feeling to get over the line, given all the heartbreaks in the past and recent times,’ O’Donovan said.
‘We were lucky in the sense that the time period since the football final was short. Had we got a long period to dwell on it, things may have been different. The pitch was fine, it was a great game of hurling for the neutrals, we could never shake off Ballinascarthy until those few late scores when we got ahead,’ O’Donovan added.
Thoughts turn now to the county series and a meeting with Ballinora the Mid Cork champions this weekend.
‘We certainly will celebrate (last Sunday night), but will refocus and start thinking about it on Tuesday. This win is a huge boost for a small club like ours. We have had many disappointments in the past, but this makes up for many of them,’ the Mathúnas dual star emphasised.
‘We lost the minor hurling final after a replay, the U21 hurling final and of course the junior A football final last week. That’s three finals so we were determined to not let this one slip today,’ explained ace free-taker and man-of-the-match Caolan O’Donovan.
‘We found it very hard to shake off Ballinascarthy, they were up four points at one stage. Kevin’s goal gave us a boost, we clawed our way back into the game. We really had to hurl all-out in those last hectic ten minutes. We then got ahead of them and finished strongly’.
The hurling world is the oyster for this unassuming minor dual star who not surprisingly relishes the prospect of having a go at the county.
‘We are playing Ballinora next, they beat Clonakilty well last year so we will have our work cut out. We will enjoy this one, it is a long time coming, then we will worry about Ballinora later in the week’.
Pat Lucey has been there, done that and brings a wealth of experience as selector, but was quick to point out it was like on the field, a great combined effort off it, that brought off this fantastic win.
‘We were down last week at training, but by the time we left on Tuesday evening heads were back up again. We told them we were 60 minutes away from winning a West Cork, which to be honest at the start of the year did not look on,’ Lucey said.
‘We stood up today when it counted. Our defence, as it has been all year, was fantastic. A couple of instances stood out, like when Robbie (Lucey) caught a fantastic ball, it went up the field and Caolan put it over the bar. We needed turnovers like these to win.
‘We have a good management team with Diarmuid Coleman of Ballinhassig, Johnny Nyhan who was in goal in 2010 the last time we won the title, Tadhg Nyhan as well. We got on very well. This win was fantastic for a small club like ours.’
Captain fantastic Jeremiah Hurley had played though the pain barrier since the drawn game having injured his shoulder, but lined out and put in a fantastic shift as lynchpin of their defence.
‘I dislocated my shoulder in the drawn game, but I visited a lot of people to make sure I could play today and it has paid off,’ Hurley said.
‘It is a great honour for me to have been captain, but there are a lot more leaders on the field and they showed why today. We did not have a chance to ponder on the football final reversal. In many ways the short time span benefited us,’ added the delighted Mathúnas skipper.
