Bride Rovers banking on goals – and growth – to finally reach the final

The story of Bride Rovers and the Senior A Championship has been dragging on longer than the Rathcormac and Bartlemy men would like. Five years running, five semi-finals.

And yet, no final. Close, yes. Close enough? Never.

This time feels different.

There is no standout contender in this year’s last four, no outright favourite. It could be any of the quartet in action this weekend. For the first time in a while, Rovers have every reason to believe it could be them.

The numbers back that up. Across the last two seasons they managed just four goals in as many games. This year, they have already doubled that tally. Eight goals in four matches. Conleith Ryan has half of them.

He has been on fire, a green flag or two in every group game and a couple of points thrown in against Inniscarra, too.

“This year especially, it’s definitely new to me this year. It just depends on where I'm playing. I would always have a taste for the goals, I'd probably take them on a bit too much more than I should!” he laughs. “I should probably leave it over like the rest of the boys.

“But you need to be direct in the championship.

“As you see, goals win games, a lot of teams putting goals by other teams and just killing them off like that. Goals is definitely a thing that's on my mind. This is one of those years where it's paid off.” Goals may be the new string to his bow, but another marker has been with him all along – his voice.

Antrim,” he smiles, when asked about the accent. “I was born here, I lived part of my life in the north, until I was around seven or eight, and I've been here since. I went to school in St Colman’s in Fermoy, but I just never managed to lose the accent!

“Ah, yes, I always have, always have,” he laughs, of the slagging. “Down through the years, but it's water off in my back now!” The lilt might linger, but it’s the substance that matters – Ryan speaks for a group that has left behind the excuse of youth and figured out how to close the games they once let slip.

MENTALITY

“I think there's a much better mentality in the team this year,” Ryan admits. “I suppose we've been told we're such a young team and that excuse is getting old for us now, and the likes of myself, we're starting to be the older fellas in the team, I’m 25.

“It's just maturity. It's maturity in the hurling and in the players on the field.” That maturity was forged in defeat. Their neighbours Watergrasshill landed the heaviest blow of the campaign, and maybe the most important.

“They threw everything at us and they succeeded in that. I guess we were probably caught on the back foot and we just couldn't claw it back from there.

“We still progressed through, but it definitely does leave a sour taste in your mouth, losing to rivals like that,” he admits. “It was definitely a thing we had to just be leave behind us.

“In previous years, I guess we aced all our groups, so we did progress to the semi-finals and I think we might have been flat footed in the previous semi-finals. 

So this year we actually got the taste of a loss.

“Because we did take it as if it was like getting knockout championship, losing like that. So I think it might be a positive for us too because it really grounds us and just keeps our heads down going into Carrigtwohill.” Bride Rovers have been knocking at the door long enough. The goals of Ryan – and the grit that came from Watergrasshill’s sting – may yet be the key to finally forcing it open.