John Horgan on hurling: Young Barrs here to stay after finally ending years of hurt

IT is only right and proper that when a club wins a county title after being without one for such a long time, they celebrate in an appropriate manner.

No doubt, that’s what the Barrs have been doing all week at their base in Togher and elsewhere, realising the enormity of what they have achieved.

And that is exactly what it was, an enormous achievement, winning a title that required a lot of hard work on and off the field, plenty of grit and determination and bagfuls of character and inner belief.

When they trailed last Sunday’s final opponents, Blackrock by nine points in an earlier group game after just 12 minutes, few, if any, would have given them a snowball’s chance in hell of ending the season as champions.

In fact, at that juncture in that game, they were staring down the barrel of an almighty hammering, a defeat that could have crushed them.

But the manner with which they reinvented themselves that day, turning the game completely on its head told us that they possessed the credentials that were required to catapult them onto the list of more serious title contenders.

That victory on that occasion had to be a major turning point in their season even if the road ahead of them was still a minefield.

Title favourites Sarsfields were up next in a make-or-break game, an extension to their season or another summer of acute disappointment.

It’s history now that it was Sars who had their season ended in that game and that things would just get better as the subsequent hurdles in front of them were negotiated, Douglas, Newtownshandrum and the Rockies last Sunday.

As each of those hurdles were overcome, the sense got stronger and stronger that things were really stirring in Togher, the belief was growing inside and outside the camp that maybe, just maybe, the 29-year famine might be about to end.

Youthful exuberance and experience were blending beautifully together to make everybody sit up and take notice.

The graduation of some still very young players into serious senior hurlers and the obvious togetherness of the group under Ger Cunningham was becoming more and more evident and from being 11 points in arrears against Blackrock in that group game, they found themselves ahead by a similar margin in the same space of time against Newtown in the semi-final.

But the biggest test of all was still ahead of them, overcoming a Rockies team again that had to be hugely motivated after that earlier group game loss.

And with the conditions that prevailed last Sunday, conditions that continued to deteriorate as the game aged there might have been an apprehension that a side containing quite a few very young players might be at a bit of a disadvantage against a team that were champions two years earlier and maybe had more of a physical presence.

BRIGHTEST

But that was not the case at all, it was the younger Barrs players who shone the brightest, Ben Cunningham, the outstanding Ethan Twomey, Ben O’Connor, Jack Cahalane and substitute Willie Buckley.

All of them alongside the more experienced heads of Damien Cahalane, Billy Hennessy, Eoin Keane and Glenn O’Connor combined superbly, particularly in the second half, to manufacture one of the greatest-ever county final victories in the long and illustrious history of a club that is renowned far and wide.

With a group format, a team can lose a game and still make it through to the knockout stage but this Barrs team went through a long and difficult campaign without losing any game.

We have stated before that winning the Cork SHC is now more difficult than ever with the very successful group format, six games if you don’t go straight through to the semi-finals.

Now, having made the big breakthrough, there might be a suggestion that more will follow and that may well be the case.

But, at the same time, there are no guarantees and we have all seen how difficult it has been for other clubs to retain the title.

Newtown and Sars in their glory days did not do it, the Rockies couldn’t last season while the last side to do it was the Glen in 2015 and 2016 and before them Erin’s Own in 2006 and ’07. But the monkey is off the Barrs back now, the pressure of being without for so long is removed too and the age profile of the team suggests that they will continue to knock on the door.

There is so much to admire about this Barrs team, their ability to defend as a unit and with such ferocity as they exhibited last Sunday. There is great pace and plenty of scoring potential contained in the side and the confidence gained from the campaign as a whole will be an advantage they will have when they set out to defend the title next season.

Before that comes to pass expect a couple of them to be wearing red jerseys in early 2023, Ethan Twomey, Ben Cunningham, Ben O’Connor, Brian Hayes, Conor Cahalane, Cian Walsh and maybe more.

Those players will have impressed Cork boss Pat Ryan over the past few months and he’ll have them in his thoughts as he finalises an extended panel for next season.

Of course, there is a massive step up from club hurling to the level Limerick are at right now and matching the physicality that they and others exhibit will be of paramount importance.

But for now and before the commencement of the Munster club championship we must salute what this Barrs team has achieved.

Behind the likes of the Rockies, Sars, Midleton, the Glen, Imokilly in the early season pecking order, they have come through the field in impeccable fashion and they are very worthy Cork champions again and that can only be for the overall good of the game in the county.