Milking cows and marking stars: Ciarán Joyce at 23 is already one of Cork's best hurlers

With Ciarán Joyce, the talent was always there. For those who played alongside him during his underage days or watched him star as a teenager – there was little surprise in seeing him, not just make it with Cork, but go on to become one of the most integral players.

But for Joycey, playing for Cork wasn’t the ambition growing up. At least not for a while.

“My number one goal was always actually to play with Castlemartyr,” he begins. “I played with Kitha Óg underage and went to a lot of Castlemartyr matches, so watching them play, watching them win east Corks – that was my number one goal.

“I suppose when I started playing with the Cork minor panel, I started to realise that I might be good enough to make the Cork [senior] panel. I just took it step by step,. Then I suppose when we won the All-Ireland U20, I got called in. My goal that year was just to make the bench nearly, but I got thrown in playing.

I’m delighted to be here. It’s a special time to be a Cork player.

Having worked with Pat Ryan at U20 level, that familiar face returned for Joyce and many others, when Ryan replaced the outgoing Kieran Kingston for 2023.

“We're learning and Pat's learning. He'll say that himself, especially the backroom team. We're all always learning, and he has his ways of coaching and managing as well, he's very good and you'd run through a wall for Pat,” he adds. “He's a great man.” 

This stage is now familiar territory for Joyce and his teammates after last year’s All-Ireland defeat to Clare. But while the result didn’t go their way, getting that experience has been hugely valuable – setting them up for tomorrow.

“It was a small bit new to me. I suppose the Limerick game [last year] was kind of like an All-Ireland final as well,” Joyce says. “But of course, as a young fella, like, you're always learning too. The All-Ireland final was no different to that, too. But I feel like this year we're definitely better equipped.

“Gary Keegan’s our psychologist and we do a lot of work with him.

“We just try to get the doubts out of our heads. I suppose last year we learnt a lot as well, there was a lot of hype around the place.” Part of avoiding any doubt also means being able to switch off from hurling, something Joyce has been able to do at home on the farm.

GROUNDED

“I'm farming for the summer now at home with my father. We're dairy farming at home. So, I'm keeping busy. I love it.

“He won't give you any days off [but] It keeps me grounded anyway!

“I'll farm for the rest of the summer anyway, and I'll look into maybe getting a job there at the end of the year but in the future, I do hope to go home dairy farming,” he says. “It's not conducive to training but I'm lucky now my dad is fit and healthy, and he's able to go milking but anytime I'm around, I do go milking.

We try and talk as little as possible about hurling. You know, he's very good like that too.

“He's a big GAA man and he realises that it's important to keep my eyes off hurling for a while. It obviously consumes a lot a lot of my life as well so he's very good like that to kind of keep my head away from that.” 

One of the new faces this year is Diarmuid Healy, a player Joyce knows well, and has been able to offer guidance to this season, as Healy settled in.

“He was unbelievable for Imokilly, and even Lisgoold last year,” Joyce explains. “He won the county with them as well so yeah, he's a great bit of stuff as well.

“I mark him in training a lot and he's very difficult to mark. He's fast and he's strong, and he has a great pair of hands as well. So, like, he's everything you want in a half forward player.

“I travel up and down to training with Dudsey. I meet him in Midleton a lot of times. So, like, we'd be going up and down in the car together and at the start naturally, he'd be asking questions about stuff, and you'd be trying your best to teach him a bit as well.

“Like, I'm still only 23 so I'm still learning as well, but you try your best to kind of give him a hand.

“He’s settling in so well as well. Like, he's a very easy-going fella and friendly fella so he gets on with everyone, it was no bother to him at all, really.” Diarmuid Healy isn’t the only player Joyce has found to be a handful in training, though. Getting roasted by his man isn’t always uncommon, either.

“Plenty [of] times,” he laughs. “Mainly by Conor Lehane. I mark Lehane a lot now, and he's definitely the hardest fella to mark in training. You can see it in any game he comes on.

“He's electric. He's just so jinky. He's so accurate as well. I hate marking him, to be honest!”