Lisgoold backed up breakthrough East Cork success with two counties

HARD work in the club from underage upwards over the past 15 years reaped a rich reward for Lisgoold, who enjoyed an emphatic victory over Kilbrittain in the Cork County LIHC final.

That was according to Liam Walsh, a member of the management team that oversaw this wonderful success.

“It’s just fantastic, something that we could not have dreamed of, two county titles in just three months — unbelievable,” he said.

“We came up to Páirc Uí Chaoimh hoping to win by a point, but to have been able to do much better than that is wonderful for our club.

“We have a great bunch of players, hugely dedicated, who have done everything we have asked of them. We got a great start, which we saw as being very important, and we just pushed on from there.’’

Walsh found it hard to put into words what the past few months have meant to everybody in the parish.

“Look, we only won our first East Cork junior title last year, now we have two county titles as well,” he said.

“It’s all down to hard work by everybody. We are a small club, but everybody contributes. This is a young enough team, we had five of the six forwards U21, so that bodes well for us going forward [with Cork minor Diarmuid Healy into the mix for 2022].

“John Cronin was our leader out there, he set the right example, as he always does, and what he has done over the past number of years is remarkable.”

Walsh admitted that they were in unknown territory when this campaign began.

“We had great preparation, winning the junior only a few months ago was perfect for us, it gave us momentum, and we carried that forward into this campaign,” he said.

“We took it game by game in everything that we did, and we have come out on the right side each time.”

Now a rest beckons for the players at the club’s disposal.

“Yes, we’ll give them a well-earned rest now,” he said. “They certainly deserve that after what they have achieved.

I suppose winning our first East Cork junior title was a monkey off our back, and we took it on from there. 

"We will be going up to a higher grade again next season, more unknown territory, but we’ll be doing our best again, and we’ll see how that goes.

“What has happened in our club over the past 12 months has been remarkable. Winning not one, but two county titles — who could have imagined that happening?

“It’s all down to all the players in the squad, they made a huge effort that has been rewarded again.

“This bunch of players have done themselves and this vibrant club proud.’’