Premier SHC: Charleville manager Mark Foley happy with his sides development ahead of St Finbarr's encounter

CHARLEVILLE will face reigning champions St Finbarr’s this Saturday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (6pm) in the Co-Op SuperStores Premier SHC quarter-final and while people might be surprised by the North-Cork sides progression to the last eight, it isn’t a huge shock given their impressive performances and impressive results.

The team in red and white ended up in a relegation play-off 12 months ago, but they were desperately unfortunate to have faced St Finbarr’s, Sarsfields and Blackrock in the group-stage. It really doesn’t get much tougher than that, but after drawing with the Barrs, losing by six points to Sars and just defeated by two points against the Rockies, Charleville hammered Na Piarsaigh 2-27 to 0-13 to stay up.

In fact, Charleville were also in the relegation play-off in 2021 when the game finished 1-25 to 2-22 after extra-time with the Avondhu club winning 3-2 on penalties. But even the group-stage that year involved St Finbarr’s, Blackrock and Erin’s Own, with Charleville picking up a point against Erin’s Own though performances were again encouraging.

This season has been ticking along nicely for the North-Cork outfit. A strong mid-table finish in the RedFM Division 1 hurling league gave them a good foundation before the championship where it was another difficult group. But, they were on the right side of the fine margins this season, after draws with Fr O’Neill’s and Erin’s Own, Charleville defeated Douglas, 2-18 to 0-21, two weeks ago to qualify and that was despite playing without Darragh Fitzgibbon and just over 30 minutes with 14 players after Oran O’Connell received a second yellow-card.

Former Limerick hurler Mark Foley, who is in his third season in charge of Charleville, is pleased how things are going in 2023 after battles with relegation in his first two campaigns at the helm.

“I am really enjoying my time here in Charleville,” says Foley.

“It had been a challenging couple of years but thankfully we managed to stay up in the first two seasons. We have been making progress year on year, if we weren’t I wouldn’t be here, so I am really pleased with how the team are developing. The first season we improved towards the end of the campaign and managed to stay up. Last season we were dealt an incredibly tough group but we performed very well and then we won in the relegation play-off. This campaign we have seen further steps in the right direction, the league went quite well and we went unbeaten in the championship group-stage.” 

Charleville knew what was required in the final group match two weeks ago, beat Douglas and hope Erin’s Own would fail to beat Fr O’Neill’s. And that's how it panned out. Foley says the Douglas win was the accumulation of two years of hard work coming together.

“It was a massive win for us. It was a knockout game for us whereas Douglas were already through, but to beat a top team was important. We had come so close over the last few years in a number of games against top quality opposition so to beat a fancied Douglas outfit will give us huge momentum going into the quarter-final this weekend. To be down a player for about 32 minutes and playing against the wind in the second-half, everything was against us but we showed enormous character, which was so pleasing. It was an excellent team performance and since I arrived two years ago, that was the performance I was looking for.” 

St Finbarr’s are the opposition on Saturday, with the previous meeting 14 months ago still fresh in the minds. It was the first-group stage game of the 2022 season and even though the Barrs were a small bit undercooked that day with injuries and players away, Charleville were full value for their 0-25 to 2-19 draw. The Charleville boss hopes his team can be inspired from the showing they gave that day.

“These are the games you want to play and to try and test yourself against the best. We are really looking forward to playing in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. We lost well to St Finbarr’s in 2021 but drew with them last season. No one will give us a chance this weekend but I am sure last season’s display will give us belief and when you see Bishopstown beating Glen Rovers, it’s all on the day.” 

One player who won’t be putting on the red and white jersey this weekend is Charleville’s star man Darragh Fitzgibbon, with the 26-year-old ruled out for three months.

“Unfortunately Darragh will be out for 12 weeks, he broke a bone in his foot against Fr O'Neill's in the opening group game. We were hoping he would be back sooner than that but we only found out very recently so it's a big blow. Darragh is still a huge part of this group, he’s a great leader.”