Inniscarra hurlers bring in a new voice to find their feet at Senior A grade
Inniscarra's Padraig Holland manages to break away from four Killeagh players last season. Picture: Howard Crowdy
AFTER an outstanding 2022 season that saw Inniscarra win the Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship and secure promotion to the Senior ranks, hopes were high in the club.
Like Blarney and Courcey Rovers had shown in 2021 and 2022 respectively – getting out of the group in your first year at Senior A is not an unrealistic achievement.
Unfortunately for the Muskerry side, the fairytale met a swift and brunt conclusion in 2023.
A disappointing defeat to Killeagh was followed by a hammering from Na Piarsaigh, and all of a sudden hopes of qualification were replaced by the fear of relegation.
“At the start year, the focus would have been to stay up and keep the senior status, that was the main aim,” says chairman Liam Lenihan. “But you're always disappointed when you've had such a good year before. You're disappointed when you lose.
“In saying that, we were down a good few players through injury and with fellas away. I think we went into the first round of Championship last year against Killeagh missing six from the previous year’s county final-winning team, so that's huge then when you don't have enough fellas at that level, it’s a big ask.
“The display against Na Piarsaigh was very disappointing,” Liam says. “I couldn't put a finger on what happened there. We were totally outplayed on the night, but we didn’t do ourselves justice either.
“Bride Rovers were that bit better than us as well, we were kind of in with a few chances to go ahead early on and didn't take them. Once they got a goal, it was always going to be tough. Near the end, we could have gotten another goal ourselves and it might have made it a bit of a tighter game, but they were always in control.
“When we went into the relegation playoff against Mallow,” Lenihan continues. “I suppose we had a few fellas back as well for that game and it was all shoulders to the wheel.
“It was a very big game for the club, especially after just going up the year before, it would have been very disappointing to come straight back down.
“In fairness to the lads, they got the job done on the day. At the start of the year, if you said that we’d keep our status, we’d be happy enough, so it wasn’t that much of a failure.”
While Paul McCarthy departed after their PIHC triumph, Ken St Leger and Mark Prendergast stayed on for one more year, and have now been replaced by Kanturk’s Danny O’Donoghue.
“Ken St Leger and Mark Prendergast obviously stepped away at the end of last year, and it was time to go looking again. We’ve Danny on board now and in fairness, he’s very enthusiastic. He knows his hurling, he’s been with Kanturk for years. We're hoping he brings something new, and we can kick on again.
“We didn’t perform to our ability last year, which is something we’re hoping to try and address this year.
“Sometimes you don’t perform because you may be not allowed to perform by the opposition,” Liam explains. “You're obviously playing a higher grade of hurling and then it'll take a year or two to adapt to that as well. So the focus for the year would be again, to avoid relegation and go as far as we can.”
It won’t be getting any easier for Inniscarra in 2024 – with another challenging group to compete with for their second season among the Senior ranks.
“There's no easy group when you get to that level. You have to train hard, and you need to hit every game head-on.
“Killeagh, there wasn't much between us last year, even though they pulled away at the end.
I'd be hoping that we'll be competitive there, and we haven't played Ballyhea in a number of years. So again, that’ll take on a mind of its own.” They’ve started the 2024 season with a repeat of their 2023 conclusion – taking Mallow on in the Division 3 Hurling League. On this occasion though, the result was reversed, with Mallow winning 1-14 to 0-7.
The Rockies' second string will be their next test this Saturday in Ballyanley at 3pm, as Danny O’Donoghue looks to seek a first win as the team’s head coach.
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