AFTER ten years away from the U21 hurling grade, St Colum's have announced their comeback in style.
This was the first season since 2013 that the club fielded an U21 hurling team – and it has proved to be a shrewd decision.
The Saints beat Rossa Gabriels (an amalgamation of O’Donovan Rossa and Gabriel Rangers) by 2-15 to 2-13 to win the Carbery U21C hurling title in Bantry on Sunday.
After beating the amalgamated side 1-19 to 3-12 and Dohenys by 3-14 to 2-9 en route to the final, St Colum’s completed their 100 percent winning record to get their hands on the cup.
In a 13-a-side competition, Colum’s had only 13 players for their first match. They called up four U17s for their second game before ending the campaign with 18 players on the panel. The side is managed by Dermot Cronin. Willie Hourihane is a coach in the backroom team and was delighted with the win.
‘We have quality coming through and I could see the club going on a run in the JAHC in the coming years. By next year, most of them would have come through whereas in the last ten years, we didn’t have a player joining the juniors,’ Hourihane explained.
‘We’ll certainly be much stronger going forward. We had a savage lean spell where we had absolutely nothing going for us. The good U10s from ten years ago are there now. Most of the time we’d be caught for numbers but we will have the numbers from now on.’
Some of the key performers in the final included Cork underage star Shane Murnane, goalkeeper JD O’Sullivan and captain Tadhg Cronin. The team had one hurler gone on J1, who would have played junior hurling. There weren't any injuries involved. The club is that tight.
‘We decided to put a team in. We had a great second half against Rossa Gabriels in the first game and that set us up. We won the second match and it was all about preparation for the final then,’ Hourihane said.
‘I thought Rossa Gabriels were much better than the first night as well. An advantage for us was that we got to know our team a lot better after the first game. There was a great buzz in Bantry, almost like a home game for us. Tough game, but a great game to win. It’s all about keeping Colum’s alive. We’re not amalgamated, we’re standing on our own so it was a great win,’ the coach explained.
Hourihane also hopes this Carbery title win will give hurling a boost in the club.
‘We would have a bigger panel in football. We have struggled in junior hurling and football has taken over to be honest. Hopefully this win can pull us up some bit and try and do a Randal Óg job. It is so hard to do the two codes,’ he said.
‘There was a big crowd at the game. I think it will help gain interest. It does have to be embraced too. I do think hurling is playing second fiddle to football in West Cork in general. The players know what can be done now if they put their minds to it. All that team is U21 again next year and that’s a good factor,’ Hourihane said.
The winning St Colum’s team: JD O’Sullivan; John Bryden O’Connell, Anthony O’Sullivan; Gearoid Cronin, Alan Kelleher, Sean Cronin; Shane Murnane, Liam Hourihane; Robert Cronin, Tadhg Cronin, Roy McCarthy; Dan Andrews, Kian Kelleher. Subs: Thomas Cunney, Ciaran O’Sullivan, Michael O’Riordan, Michael O’Shea, Cian Cronin.
