Kanturk hurlers prove they can mix it with the big guns

Kanturk manager Tom Walsh says his side have proved to themselves that they can trade fire with the big guns in the Premier Senior Hurling Championship.

Liam O’Keeffe’s 68th-minute equaliser snatched a share of the spoils from a pulsating second-round refixture against Midleton which finished 1-21 apiece. A win or draw against relegation-threatened Charleville would stamp their ticket to the knockout stages for the first time since their promotion.

“We came here today to prove a point that we can mix it with the big guns,” said Walsh. “We wanted to prove that to ourselves more than anything else.

“We’re delighted with the performance. There are things we can improve on quite a bit but we’ll work on those again during the week.

“We’ve Charleville now and that’s our next focus as and from tonight. Midleton have three points, we’ve three points, and Erin’s Own have two. 

Everybody has something to play for so it’s going to be interesting." 

IMPACT

Substitute O’Keeffe’s no-look leveller proved the crucial score and Walsh enjoyed his statement to management.

“Liam would’ve been starting with us but he’d a knee injury and he struggled a bit for the last few weeks. We didn’t start him but he came on and he made a big statement. That’s what we like.” 

Walsh was equally full of praise for Brian O’Sullivan’s radar. He landed 0-12 among them three monster frees from his own 45-metre line and a pressure free from the sideline to level in the 64th minute.

Brian has well established himself in Cork as being an outstanding hurler and again, tonight, he’s proved that for us.

“All our 15 fellas and we brought on a few subs, we’re proud of all of them. We feel we’ve a good team, good athletes, and good hurlers – up there with the best of them.” 

The wind should’ve favoured the team playing into the far goal at Castletownroche but in either half, the team playing against it had the edge.

“The wind was blowing into the corner and it wasn’t easy to manage,” said Walsh. “The ground was hard so when the ball hit the ground, it was spinning out. We didn’t gain much out of the wind or Midleton didn’t either in the first half. We probably could’ve used it a bit better but we’ll learn those things.” 

Like Midleton, Kanturk had to turn around from the previous weekend’s postponement to lift themselves for a rematch six days later.

“It was a concern that we had but we trained very well during the week,” said Walsh. “They were very focused. We had to bring that today, which we did.

“Our start was very good and we went after the game. We wanted to head out and take the lead, maintain it as long as we could, and see it through if we could.

“Look, we got a point out of it. We’ve three points out of four. We’re in a good position to get out of the group. That’s our focus.” 

On the injury front, Colin Walsh missed out with a quad injury.

“He’s due a scan again in another couple of weeks. We’d be hopeful we might get something out of him before the year is over. We’ll just have to wait and see.”