IAHC: Bandon ready for massive Aghabullogue challenge

Having been unlucky not to secure a place in the premier senior hurling grade when the Cork county championships were restructured for 2020, the speed of Bandon’s slide could scarcely have been predicted.

In that first year at senior A, they were quarter-finals and ran Kanturk close but from there results declined, with many of the group who had taken the club to senior coming to the end of their careers. The Lilywhites were relegated at the end of 2021 and then suffered a similar fate after just two years at premier intermediate level.

While they failed to qualify from their group at intermediate A level, the campaign did end with a group-stage victory over an Erin’s Own side that would go on to reach the final – that positive note was built upon with a Division 4 league final appearance this year, which in turn fed into a positive championship campaign.

Bandon face Aghabullogue in Saturday night’s final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (5.30pm) and manager Joe Burke is happy that the graph is pointing upwards again.

“Winning becomes a habit and unfortunately losing becomes a habit as well,” he says.

“There is fear going into games, especially with the round-robin – if you lose your first game, the pressure is on with the second one. If you lose the second one, you're staring down the barrel of relegation.

“It’s so important to win the first game and we really focused in on that this year, the first game against Russell Rovers. We used the league as a kind of a foundation to get games into guys. Thankfully, we had a good league campaign and we had a good look at fellas.

“I wouldn't say the pressure was off after beating Russell Rovers, but it's certainly easier when you win your first game.”

While Bandon followed the Russell Rovers win with a loss to a strong Midleton second team, it put them in knockout mode for the last match against Mayfield. A win there gave them a re-match with Erin’s Own – a first knockout win since beating Newtownshandrum in the 2017 SHC resulted.

That set up a semi-final meeting with Sarsfields. A 0-10 to 0-8 victory was not a classic but getting to the final was all that mattered.

“We knew, going into the Mayfield game, that we just had to win by as much as we could, and hope that things went well on the other side as well,” Burke says.

“We had hoped to get out of last year but we didn't, just the way the results went for us, but we used that disappointment of last year just to drive on this year and just make the knockout stages.

“We took it game by game, from the first game of the year all through, but we were just thrilled really to get into the knockout stages and it just runs from there.

“Semi-final are just there to be won – I'd always say I'd prefer to win the bad game than to lose the good one.

“It wasn't it certainly wasn't a great game – I'd say they won't be showing repeats of it in years to come! Thankfully, we held them off as well and we just had to get over the line.”

Now, the task turns to trying to build on what has been achieved, though Burke knows they will be underdogs against a strong Aghabullogue side.

“Look, there is excitement around the place, of course, because we haven't been in a final in nine years,” he says.

“There is fierce excitement amongst the kids and stuff and that's fantastic, they're all part of it as well, but it really is just another game.

“We're under no illusions going into this game, this is going to be very difficult. Aghabullogue were so unlucky last year to be relegated after a replay against Kilworth, they won this grade two years ago and they’re trying to bounce back up again.

“They’ve been scoring well and scored very well in the semi-final. We know we’re up against it and we’ve a very difficult challenge coming, but the first thing is to compete, to get stuck in from the start and the scoreline will sort itself out then after that.”