Seán Guiheen impressed with Courcey Rovers' character

IT was while he was involved with his native Na Piarsaigh that Seán Guiheen first noticed the qualities in Courcey Rovers that have brought him to the club.

In Guiheen’s first year in charge, the Ballinspittle/Ballinadee outfit have made it to tomorrow evening’s Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier IHC final against Castlelyons in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (5pm). He recalls being attracted to the substance present among the Courceys personnel.

“They’re fierce traditional in Courcey Rovers,” he says.

“I remember playing them in a league game down there in 2013, when I was with Piarsaigh, and you could see what they brought to the table. 

They were very genuine fellas, very honest and good background, a good culture. Obviously, historically they were all hurling, which was probably another factor.”

Wins over Carrigaline, Youghal and Éire Óg earned Courceys top spot in Group A, with the added bonus of progressing straight to the semi-finals, along with tomorrow’s opponents. It was a more serene passage than last year, when they had to win their last game to squeeze through on scoring difference. Even that was a positive of sorts, though.

“They got off to a very bad start last year and lost the first two games,” Guiheen says.

“They won the last game and got through on scoring difference and then made it to a semi-final – that in itself shows a lot of character, after a bad start and facing the possibility of relegation.

“I looked at a couple of matches from last year. Obviously, the approach is to take things one game at a time but we were just looking to do something different that might put a little bit more into the same players.

“Everything is so tight in premier intermediate, there’s very little between the 12 teams, it’s all on the day, really. It was about getting out of the group, trying to progress and see where we went from there.”

CONNECTION

The flipside of avoiding the quarter-finals is a lay-off and then playing a semi-final against a team that has won more recently. In that regard, former Courceys boss John Meyler was of assistance to Courceys before their semi-final against neighbours Valley Rovers.

“Obviously, we were trying to plan the fill the gap,” Guiheen says, “and we got Kanturk in a challenge match, which was the best game for us.

“The level they were at, it was a brilliant game to get. Then, a week before Valleys, we had a couple of injuries and we were wondering if we should play another match or not.

“John Meyler’s with Kilmoyley and he got on to us and we said we’d gamble and go for it so we played them the Saturday before we played Valleys. We had a good game against them and I think it really did help us against Valleys.

“It blew off the cobwebs and got any rustiness out so, looking back, I think we probably planned it right.”

Now, the challenge is to improve on the last outing and Guiheen knows that they will face a tough task.

“The last two or three years, Castlelyons are knocking at the door,” he says.

“They’re huge favourites from day one in the championship this year but the way we’re looking at it is that it’s a challenge that we’re relishing.

“We’ve prepared as best we could and there’s good vibe in the camp. Training has gone well and we obviously need to produce our best performance of the year to date. You’re always looking for the breaks to go your way on the day, but we’re really looking forward to it.”