John Horgan on hurling: Castlelyons deserved their success after keeping the faith

THEY say that everything comes to those who wait and the longer that wait is the more joyous the occasion.

And that's what came to pass last Sunday afternoon when Castlelyons departed the ranks of Premier Intermediate hurling and donned their graduation day hats to become a senior hurling club again.

They will be lining up next season in the Cork County Senior A championship alongside Glen Rovers, Na Piarsaigh, Fr O'Neill's, Bride Rovers, Killeagh and all the rest of the participants in that grade. You have to lose a final to win one is a well-worn cliche that nine times out of 10 does not happen.

HEARTACHE

Well, it did for Castlelyons, not alone did they lose one final, they lost two in two seasons and there might have been a thinking that their time was not going to come. It's never easy to respond to one final defeat, to do it after two requires a deep resolve and a bagful of inner belief.

Castlelyons lost the premier intermediate finals of 2020 and 2021 to Blarney and Courcey Rovers respectively and those defeats cut very deeply in the East Cork village.

But the cause always has to endure and the hope must remain that your day will come too and for this vibrant club last Sunday was that day when they broke the hearts of a gallant Kilworth team in a final of great endeavour and honesty.

Having your own club participating in the grade, Castlemartyr, gives you a great insight into how difficult this grade of hurling is and how even the playing field is.

The vast majority of the 12 participating clubs believe that they have a good chance of ending up on the winner's podium and there's little or nothing between any of the teams.

Castlelyons, having been so close twice in recent times, were one of the obvious fancied sides again this time while Kilworth would have been a bit down the pecking order of contenders. Well, they blasted that thinking out of the water and for long stretches in last Sunday's final they looked like they were going all the way to the podium.

They led for 60 minutes of a hard-fought encounter and it wasn't until we had entered the 61st minute that Castlelyons finally broke their resistance.

A neutral would have to feel some sympathy for Kilworth for the huge effort they had put in and, of course, in reaching the final.

But the prospect of losing another final was just going to be too hard to take for Castlelyons and when push came to shove in those closing, frenetic minutes they had that bit more in reserve.

All season, particularly in their semi-final win over Castlemartyr, the success of this Castlelyons team has been built around a very solid defensive unit backboned by the experience of Jack and Colm Barry, Colm Spillane and Niall O'Leary.

They had the players up front too who did the business, Anthony Spillane, Alan Fenton and Lepn Doocey who was outstanding last Sunday.

In Noel Furlong, they had a top-notch coach who got the best out of them and eventually drove them over the line alongside selectors John Healy and Brendan Hoare.

In their semi-final victory, two quick, first-half goals were hugely contributing factors down in Midleton.

This time no green flags were raised but the point scoring from Fenton, Anthony Spillane and Doocey got them through a final that went right down to the wire. That's the way finals are meant to be, just the barest of margins dividing the teams at the end.

Castlelyons will be a welcome addition to the Senior A championship next season while this fine Kilworth team must try to emulate them now, losing a final before reinventing themselves going forward.

Easier said than done, of course, as Castlemartyr found out this season after last season's heartbreaking loss to Inniscarra.

It's a case now of three down and two to go as far as county finals are concerned, East Cork claiming the three titles that were up for grabs last weekend and Midleton hoping to add to that when they take on Aghabullogue in the IAHC final.

One title that certainly won't be heading East is the Senior A championship that will be decided next Sunday between Blarney and Newcestown.

The events leading up to Blarney's semi-final win over Bride Rovers last Saturday are well documented now and there's no point in going over old ground again. In their replayed encounter last Saturday some of us might have been expecting fireworks of some sort, another gripping encounter going right to the wire.

But that never came to pass and being very honest, it was pretty much a very low-key encounter that never ignited and Blaney's three, first-half goals all but settled the issue.

They were vastly superior on this occasion with their three Cork players, Shane Barrett, Mark Coleman and Padraig Power all making significant marks on the scoreboard.

When you have players of that calibre in your starting 15, you have a solid foundation and Coleman's ability to roam and deliver scores is a key factor.

Now it's Newcestown in the final to find out who will replace the Glen in the Premier grade next season. This is a contest to really look forward to on Sunday, two hugely committed teams who will spare nothing in that quest.

They have already been in each other's company at the group stage, Newcestown emerging on a 2-18 to 0-21 scoreline. That suggests there's little between the teams and it can happen that a group stage result is often reversed when the teams meet again.

But this Newcestown team are battle-hardened to try and ensure that's not the case on Sunday.

This might well develop into one of the hurling games of the year and the material is contained in both sides for that to happen. One thing is for certain, there won't be any shortage of effort and honesty where both sides are concerned.

Newcestown graft and resilience down the years is their hallmark in both codes and it takes some doing for a small club like theirs to get into both finals.

But it's hurling first on Sunday against a Blarney side that will be as focused as them. Expect a humdinger.