Cobh's dual balancing act – and a long wait for East Cork JAHC glory

While Cobh’s Premier Junior Football Championship run came to a halt against St Nick’s in the semi-final, their Junior A hurlers have gone one step further – edging Carraig na bhFear to book a place in the East Cork decider and a shot at a first Jamesy Kelleher Cup since 1985.

Cobh are caught between two testing worlds – Premier Junior in football and Junior A in hurling – the most precarious of dual identities. In one code, they’re in the one tier you don’t want to be relegated from; in the other, straining for a way out of the divisional bottleneck.

“We came down from intermediate hurling about 15 years ago,” says dual player Cian Spriggs. “It slips by very quickly, and you're down a grade. It's very hard to come back up, especially out of a divisional competition.

“You have to string a number of wins together in your division and then again in the county series in order to get back up promoted.” 

Their footballers, for their part, have made solid ground – a semi-final run that came with its share of anxiety, the nature of Premier Junior.

“To be honest, this grade of football is very competitive and with the small number of teams in the groups, the threat of relegation is always there,” Spriggs explains. “It was there for us this year when we lost our first game. I suppose it focusses the mind then.

“You're very much focused within your group and it energises you because you know from then on you can't afford another slip-up.” 

That tightrope is well understood by Derek Barrett, Cobh’s hurling manager – whose job is to keep both the calendar and the legs intact.

“To be honest, I make no bones about it. It's quite hard to mix the two when you're a hurling manager because some fellas need the hurley in their hand all the time, and it's a sport where you do need the hurley in your hand.

“But these lads, in fairness, when they went up to Premier Junior and a lot of them, Conor [McLaughlin] there now and George [Keating], they're the backbone and the warriors of our team and there are a few more with them.

“And it's very easy to cross over when you've players like that calibre and they're bringing on the young fellas with them. So from a mindset, it's easy enough,” Barrett says. “But from an organisation point of view, it's not.” 

BRIDGING THE GAP

One player who bridges that gap seamlessly is Timmy Wilk, the Cork U20 standout who has become a linchpin in both codes. His influence, Barrett says, reaches far beyond his scoring or positioning.

“All good hurlers can play everywhere and Timmy's a good hurler,” says Barrett. “At underage, Timmy would have played in the forward line quite a bit or he'd have played wing-back or he'd have played centre field.

“He was kind of your go-to man. But Timmy is a very, very good young fella and in fairness to him, he's pushing on for a place in the cork senior hurling panel as well.

“And I think he's after absorbing that himself and he wants to better himself so there's no fear with Timmy in fairness.”

Spriggs has seen it up close. “He brings massive physicality to it as well. Those lads are putting in ferocious work 10 months of the year.

“When you bring that back down to the club set-up, it makes a big, big difference," Spriggs remarks. "We'd like to have Tim involved with Cork for as much of the year as possible, but it's also great to have him back. He brings a standard to training, and he brings a standard to matches.” 

They’ll go to Midleton on Sunday carrying the favourites tag for the final against Bride Rovers – though Rovers have shown often enough this year that such things are meaningless.

For Barrett, the focus is simpler. Seize the moment.

“Now we're in a final, we just want to absorb it, but we want to go out and play.

“And if we're good enough on the day, we're good enough. But we want to leave it out on the pitch rather than inside the dressing before we go out there.”