Bride Rovers have shown that they are SAHC contenders
Conleith Ryan of Bride Rovers reaches out for the sliotar ahead of Castlelyons James Kearney during the Co-Op Superstores Senior A Hurling Championship match in Ballynoe. Picture: Howard Crowdy
As far as derby wins go – it doesn’t get much better than Bride Rovers’ triumph over Castlelyons.
The Rathcormac outfit led from start to finish, and their young guns starred.
The result puts them on top of Group 2, and now their rivals must defeat Cloyne and hope Rovers fall to Fermoy in order to take top spot.
“We’re delighted, selector Barry Hazelwood begins. “With the local rivalry we didn't know what to expect.
“I'll be honest with you, we knew we were playing a very good Castlelyons team. They’re seasoned, and they had a great run last year. I’m delighted that our fellas played well.”
Given Rovers' astounding form in front of goal a defeat to Cloyne looks unlikely, but this is Cork hurling.
Anything and everything is possible.
“I was at the Fermoy and Castlelyons game, I know Fermoy are way better than that,” Barry says. “They were hauled down for three chances at goals. There were two yellow cards and there could have been a third one, and that would have changed the game completely that night.
It was a complete team performance and a huge effort from the entire squad – but there were two players in particular that stood out for two different reasons.
Adam Walsh was superb in front of the posts, and Jamie Peters, in his first year with the club after transferring from St Mary’s in Clonmel, was very impressive at corner-back.
“Walshy’s always good,” Hazelwood begins. “He's our man, but I have to say there's other fellas contributing now on the scoreboard as well, it’s not just Walshy.
"I think Patrick O’Flynn going up to the forward line is a major plus for us as well, it’s taking the pressure off of Adam [Walsh] and Cillian Tobin a small bit.
“Jamie [Peters] is the new man,. He's in the parish for a long time, he has two kids playing in the club with us.
“He transferred to us this year, eventually. We've been trying him with 10 years I’d say.
“He eventually came to us, and we’re delighted because he is the leader. He's the man that talks to them in the dressing room. Jamie is very solid in fairness.”
Any team in any grade will happily take two wins from two to kick start the championship campaign, but after the way last season ended – Rovers will certainly hope to go all the way, but Hazelwood is keen to take it as it comes.
“You go out every day and you don’t know what's going to happen. We're prepared very well, we’ve trained very well, and our focus now is gone from Castlelyons and has gone to Fermoy for the next fortnight.
“We have to get the lads back down to ground again and drive it on.
“Castlelyons didn’t probably play [to their best] tonight, maybe we didn’t let them, I don’t know.
“The Glen and Blarney – we’re not worried about them. We’ve Fermoy next, and we want to finish the group with three wins, simple as. If we can do that, we've got a chance of going straight to the semi-final.”
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