JBHC final: Buttevant back on track after decision to re-grade

While silverware in the form of the Co-op SuperStores Cork JBHC title would certainly be welcomed, Buttevant manager Paul Daly feels that the club has already achieved its primary hurling objective for the year.

Having re-graded from junior A at the end of last year, the North Cork side have seen off Doneraile, O’Donovan Rossa, Rathpeacon, Lough Rovers and Ballyclough to make the county junior B final at the first attempt.

Uibh Laoire stand in Buttevant’s way in Páirc Uí Rinn this evening at 5pm and Daly expects a big challenge. At the same time, he feels that the year is a success regardless.

“They’re a good, fit, strong team,” he says, “we’ve seen them in action and they’re a good, honest bunch of guys, to be fair.

“To win the final would be nice and would be the cherry on top, I suppose – ultimately, our goal was giving hurling in Buttevant a small bit of recognition.

“In times gone by, people would probably have classed Buttevant as being a hurling club. Things go in cycles and the football side has worked very hard. They were quite successful and that filtered down into the under-age.

“We felt that, unless something was done, you might end up without a junior hurling team down the line.

“It was about putting a small bit of pride back in the jersey and to get back on the map a small bit, albeit at a lower level, but we had to start somewhere.”

Rather than being seen as a negative thing, the idea to drop to junior B was to provide a springboard for Buttevant.

“There was a meeting,” Daly says, “and it was felt that the football was going well and that they had a good bit of success but maybe the hurling was a small bit neglected.

“It wasn’t a case of one against the other but more, ‘Why can’t we be successful in both?’ The decision was taken then to go down in order to take one step back and two steps forward.

“We wanted to go down, please God be competitive, go back to scratch and start winning a few games.

“It was about going back to basics, working along up and seeing how far we could go. “We were in Division 2 of the league and we won all five of our games and then beat Araglen, who are a junior A team, in the final.

“That was a fine tough game and then in the group stages of the junior B championship, we won all of our games – I won’t say comfortably but we had a bit in hand.

“We’re scoring goals and we’re not conceding too many. We’ve put in a nice bit of work.

“We’re not over-complicating things – we put a big emphasis on workrate and we try to do the simple things well.

“In training, it’s all about the basics: our touch, moving the ball quick and a good, honest workrate.”

That has brought them this far and the extra benefit is the trickle-down effect to the juvenile club.

“You see it now, all the young fellas going to matches with their hurleys,” Daly says, “trying to get on to the pitch at half-time to puck around, and that involvement is a huge draw for us.

“We’re saying that to the lads – while it’s for them, there’s a huge knock-on effect. We were training the other night and the U10s and U12s were finished up, watching us.

“Our lads are good role models in how they look after themselves and that’s a great thing to have – it’s miles away from the old cliché of the junior B hurler.

“There’s no Manchester United jerseys at training now, it’s all Buttevant or Cork jerseys. Previously, the young fellas wanted to be Messi or Ronaldo, now they want to be Mark Linehan or Chris O’Toole.

“Cork going well too helps to give it a huge lift. All of the small lads can see the juniors going well and they want that – that could be a step then to playing with Cork. It’s all relatable.

“You probably won’t have anyone from Buttevant playing for Man United but you could play for Cork, it’s actually a real goal.”