Cork Hurling: Bride Rovers to make an impact at Premier Senior level

Nobody could say that Bride Rovers have not earned their spot back in the top tier of Cork hurling - now they want to make that count.

Having been senior from 2004-19 inclusive, the Rathcormac/Bartlemy outfit were housed at senior A level when the championships were restructured and the time since then has been geared towards returning to the top flight.

Quarter-finalists in 2020, they reached the semi-finals in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, with 2023 especially frustrating as they beat Blarney in a penalty shootout only for the game to have to be replayed, with Blarney winning, due to Rovers briefly having 16 players on the pitch at the end of extra time.

On Saturday, it looked as if more disappointment was in store as they trailed neighbours Castlelyons by six points with time almost up in the final replay but a late surge gave them victory by 2-15 to 2-14.

Conleith Ryan, co-captain of the team along with goalkeeper Cian Hogan, felt that the disappointments had helped to harden the team.

“Yeah, look, I think everybody writes us off,” he said.

Nobody sees us as really a big hurling team or anything like that. 

I think a lot of the newspapers, I think a lot of people just around the place, write us off. To be honest, I don't think a lot of us listen to it but it creates a bit of a fire.

“Look, we just feel the last couple of years - that's just the luck of the draw, that's just the way things go. We were unlucky the year against Blarney with that match and I think that was more of a mental thing. We were a young team and we didn't turn up the next day at all.

“It's all lessons learned; I really do believe we built on from there and the proof is in the pudding today.”

Now, a young team will be progressing up to premier senior and Ryan is keen that they can make an impact.

Following the 2003 IHC win, they reached the senior final within five years - Ryan’s father Donal was part of the side that lost to Sarsfields in the decider - and the hope is that they can mix it with the best.

I suppose the backbone of our team now is people that were born in the year 2000 and that's my year.

“I think we might hold a lot of the players on the team and then you have Jamie Peters, 33, he probably skews it a small bit but we're a very young team and like days like this, it really, it creates momentum.

“I think it's something that we can build on from here on out. I was there, my father was playing back in 2008 and I saw the upset.

“I think since we got put down in 2020, there was always just an aim to get back up to the top table. Look, we're back there now and I think we won't be just going to compete, we'll be going to go for it.”