A day to remember for Alan Cadogan as Roco land the Tom Collum Cup

SATURDAY was a good day for Alan Cadogan. 

The Cork senior hurler made a return to the Rebel side, following their injury, as they beat Clare 1-20 to 0-20 at Páirc Uí Rinn.

But earlier in the day he was coach of the Rochestown College team, at the same venue, that won the Tom Collum Cup for the first time.

After the game, he was full of praise, not just for his side, but also their opponents Hamilton High School as well.

“They are an excellent bunch of lads,” said Alan, “at the start of the year I asked them to buy into something and sometimes they might want to just go out and hurl, but to be fair I asked them to do something and to be fair that’s what they have done from October right up to now.

“We targeted a quick start and we put Alan Connolly inside there for the throw-in and I said if we win the ball from the throw-in to get it into him and thankfully we managed to do that and get the early goal.

“But we knew that Hamilton were going to throw everything at us and that’s what they did. There were some outstanding displays out there today and these lads, from both sides, are the future of Cork hurling.

“My time playing will end at some stage and these are the lads coming through and it’s very good for Cork hurling, especially to have two schools in the Harty Cup final as well.

“They are an excellent bunch of lads and they can be very proud of their achievement today. About eight or nine or these lads are underage again next year and it is very good for the school.

“It can be very hard to balance hurling and football in a school, but we are working as a GAA community with the school and that’s all we can do and it makes it all worthwhile when you have days like this,” concluded Alan.

Vice principal, Liam Ó Murchú, who has played a huge part, for more years that he would care to mention, in resurrecting GAA in the school was delighted with the win.

It was one he considered their biggest in a long time.

“We have had a few good wins in recent years, but this probably ranks as the best of them. We are lucky in that our principal, Marie Ring, is very supportive of all extra-curricular activities in the school and that helps a lot,” said Liam.