Castlehaven ready for another step into the Munster championship

CORK champions Castlehaven begin their Munster club football championship campaign this weekend, hoping that they will be able to add a fourth provincial crown to their roll of honour in the coming weeks.

Castlehaven’s history shows that they took to provincial combat like ducks to water back in the day. Their first two county titles were won in 1989 and 1994, and they backed those two victories up by translating them into Munster crowns later in those years too, with victories over St Senan’s and Clonmel Commercials, respectively. They also were Munster champions in 1997, after beating Tipperary side Fethard, despite the fact that they had actually lost the county final to divisional side Beara that year by 1-10 to 1-7.

Their last three Cork titles have been busts though in terms of following up in Munster, with their Munster final defeat to Dr Crokes in 2012 by 0-19 to 0-12 being the closest they have gotten since, so they will be looking to break that trend this year. Interestingly, Mark Collins, Damien Cahalane and Brian Hurley all lined up in that one.

They will open their Munster club championship campaign with the visit of Clare kingpins Cratloe to the Haven this Sunday in a provincial quarter-final clash. If the Cork champions manage to negotiate that hurdle then next up will be a visit to Waterford to face off against Rathgormack, while a potential Munster final against Dingle or Clonmel Commercials awaits on the second weekend of December, if they get that far.

Cratloe have only won three Clare titles with the big ball, with two more coming in hurling, the first of those football titles arrived as recently as 2013, where they managed to get all the way to the Munster club final, only to lose by a single point to Dr Crokes. They won this year’s title thanks to a 1-10 to 1-8 win over St Breckan’s at Cusack Park, with former Clare hurler Cathal McInerney bagging 1-6 of that total.

The form guide is a difficult one to judge and Castlehaven will not have much idea of how difficult the Cratloe assignment will be until the ball is thrown in, but they do have Cork football’s brilliant record in this competition to fall back on.

Cork clubs have won 31 Munster titles between them since St Nicholas became the first club from the county to win the O’Connor Cup back in 1966. 

For the record, the title has been on the go since 1964. St Finbarr’s were the last Cork club to win it when they outgunned Austin Stacks by 2-9 to 1-10 in 2021, but before that, it is all about Nemo Rangers from a Cork point of view.

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The Trabeg club have a ridiculous 17 provincial titles, with them having an even more impressive record in Munster finals than they have in Cork deciders: winning 23 out of 28 Cork finals, and 17 out of 19 in Munster. From the Barrs' win two years ago back to UCC’s title in 1999, Cork clubs had taken eight Munster crowns, with every single one of them being picked up, unsurprisingly, by Nemo.

Castlehaven scalped them in the county final and will be confident of matching their provincial prowess this year, as they look for a title that would put them fourth on their own in the Munster roll of honour, behind Nemo, Dr Crokes and the Barrs.

Michael Hurley is in blistering form at the moment for the Cork champions, and they have plenty of other forwards they can turn to for scores, such as Brian Hurley and Jack Cahalane, so firepower should certainly be no issue for James McCarthy’s side.

The Haven managed to shut down the Nemo goal machine in the county final and if they can do similar in Munster they will take some stopping. They only conceded four goals in six games en route to winning the Cork crown. Maurice Shanley got one in Clonakilty’s 1-16 to 1-14 defeat on 10 September. Dara Dorgan netted for Ballincollig in the county quarter-final, when the Village briefly threatened a comeback, while Steven Sherlock and Ethan Twomey both got goals in the semi-final for the Barr’s, although Twomey’s was merely a late consolation.

With the scoring power up the other end, the Haven will know that clean sheets will see them go far.