Spillane: I'm living my dream by hurling for Cork

THERE were heroes all over the pitch for Cork yesterday and tone of them was corner-back Colm Spillane.

The Castlelyons man endured his own share of heart-break in recent years, doing his cruciate ligament just over a year ago, but has returned stronger and better than ever.

In this year’s campaign, league and championship, he has shown the class he did at underage level for Cork and is now one of the key defenders for the Rebels.

After the game, bearing the signs of war with blood dripping from a nasty looking chin injury, he was over the moon to win the Munster title.

“It was just brilliant to win, it’s kind of hard to put it into words really. At the start of the year if we had said to people we would be, not to mind win, a Munster final they would have laughed at us.

“So we just worked hard all year, took it game by game, training session by training session and we are just over the moon to have won.

“It was a much different game to the Tipp and Waterford ones, a bit more stop-start and possibly a slower pace than the other two. Tactically it was different as well, you could see lots of different things going on from the puck-outs and it was a bit more of a chess match perhaps than the other two games.

“But we were just delighted to come out on top and it was also great to see the minors winning as well. It was great for them and the way they won, even going back to the semi-final games against Tipp it was brilliant they way they came through and it gave everyone a huge boost.

“I am lucky enough to be playing with Cork at the moment, but I am also a huge fan and I love to see all sides doing well, so it was great and hopefully the U21s can keep it going now during the week.

“The supporters too were magnificent today and all through. Even when we took on Tipp in the quarter-final there was a huge support there for a game that not too many expected us to win.

“It was even bigger against Waterford and again out there today it was just a sea of red. I’d say there was another 10,000 or so that couldn’t get in. They give the team a massive lift and as well as ourselves it’s great to win the title for them.

“Personally this is a dream come true really, having come back from injury and where I was at this point a year ago. We will enjoy tonight and then we will fully focus on the All-Ireland semi-final after that and prepare for whoever we get,” concluded Colm.