Shock of relegation served to spur Glen on

A clean sheet from Cathal Hickey went a long way towards Glen Rovers reclaiming the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC title with victory over St Finbarr’s on Sunday.

For the veteran goalkeeper, it was a third medal in the top grade – victory made all the more special given that they won the senior A championship only two years ago following relegation in 2023.

“This one feels a bit sweeter, to be honest with you, especially after we got relegated,” Hickey said.

“We believed that we were too good to go down and we let the club down, we left ourselves down.

“We knew we should never have gone down but we regrouped and we just stuck amongst ourselves and we went again.

“Then, once we got back up, we always believed that we should be here and we could win it.”

Another key element of the story defensive performance was Cork star Robert Downey, winning his first medal. He admitted that the relegation forced a major re-think.

“It was definitely a re-assessment of everything,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be slow to admit that as players we allowed standards to drop – in our training and in our preparation. I suppose we started losing games that traditionally we would have been renowned to win. I think in fairness to Tomás Mulcahy, when we went down he brought in Tommy Dunne and he drove things on, the year we got relegated and last year.

“This year we got in Donal O’Rourke and I suppose the club game has gone to a new level now – it’s gone almost like inter-county.

“You need to be ticking every box, so we had Donal O’Rourke, Ian Jones, Peter O’Keeffe, along with four or five other brilliant Glen fellas. I don’t know what it is but we always have this mentality that we think we’re going to win no matter what sort of a team we have.

“We just kept believing, even after the Blackrock game and we ended up getting there in the end.”

Having lost their opener to Blackrock, the Glen trailed Kanturk in their second match with time almost up – elimination was avoided however with a strong finish and they built from there.

“The Kanturk game was huge for us,” Hickey said.

“We felt like we were by far the better team down there, to be honest with you, but Kanturk are a hard team to put away.

“I know we only scored the four points in the last couple of minutes to win it, but that game gave us huge belief for the rest of the year.

“It drove us on and it was the making of us, to be honest.”

The team effort was underlined by how, in between Eoin O’Leary’s goals on Sunday, Hickey made a vital double-save from Brian Hayes and then John Wigginton Barrett in quick succession.

“As a goalie, you're hoping you won't get any shots, like!” he laughed.

“Look, I made a couple of saves, they went my way, I'm delighted with it.

“As I said, you're hoping you don't touch the ball at all.”

Then, at the death, William Buckley was foiled when he might scored an equalising goal.

“Throw your body at it, stop is going in at all costs,” Hickey said.

“I think Rob threw his body on it then straightaway and then we got it away.”

Little wonder that it’s straight in at the top for Downey’s best career moments.

“It’s number one,” he said, “it’s not even a debate.

“To win with your club is absolutely everything. It’s absolutely everything and I’m so grateful, so proud to be a Glen man and so proud of everyone for today and just delighted we got over the line.”