LAST year was a disappointing one for Glen Rovers in terms of the senior hurling championship.

After a gap of more years than they cared to remember they had won the previous two championships and were going for that illustrious three-in-a-row.

The two previous seasons you could see the hunger in their eyes to win when you spoke to any of the players. In fairness to them, it's not easy to keep it going, but that hunger was still there at the start of last season.

But there was a definite target on their backs and every side loves to beat the reigning champions.

They opened with a preliminary round win over Bride Rovers, but then faced Sars in round one and this time it was the east Cork side who prevailed.

Round 2B saw them recover with a win over the Barrs, but it took an injury-time goal to do so, winning by two points. Round three saw them draw with CIT, but then have a comprehensive win in the replay and it looked like they were well back on track.

Round four saw the face their age-old rivals and near-neighbours, Na Piarsaigh and in a close game the Fair Hill side won out to knock the Glen out of the championship.

In many ways that is now in the past as far as the Glen are concerned and confined to history, but you can bet it has been a huge motivating factor for them as they prepare to face Ballymartle in the first round of this years' championship on Saturday night.

Ahead of the game, Conor Dorris said they were all looking forward to getting going again.

“We are all looking forward to getting going after last year's disappointment, so we want to get the show on the road and hopefully get on a good run.

“We have to get over Ballymartle and that's all we are thinking about at the moment. We have had our fair share of battles with them down through the years and they have a never-say-die attitude and are really tough to beat.

“In 2015 we were six or seven points up and looked to be cruising late on, but they kept playing to the end and they beat us.

“That's the kind of team they are and go back a year to 2014 and we beat them in the quarter-final, but they could have just as easily won that day too, so we know what we are in for on Saturday.

“Looking back to last year, obviously we wanted to win and didn't want to be losing to any team, but especially not to Piarsaigh. It wasn't a great year for us and we never got into the swing of things, but we can't go back and all we can do is use it to motivate us for this year and hopefully put another good run together,” concluded Conor.