Timmy Wilk injury doubt for Cobh as they head into U21 C Hurling Championship final

Cobh are through to the U21 C Hurling Championship final, and they achieved that last weekend without their main man Timmy Wilk, who’s currently sidelined with injury.

Scorer of 1-11 in their East Cork Junior A Hurling Championship final win over Bride Rovers and called into the Cork senior setup with Ben O’Connor, Wilk has spent the past two seasons as a regular for the Cork U20s, but his involvement in the county final against either Donoughmore or St Mark’s – who meet tomorrow at Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s 4G – is still uncertain.

“We’ll see, we’ll wait and see,” said Derek Barrett. “He's got eight or nine stitches in his finger, but Timmy is Timmy, he’ll want to play it, and he'll be back whether his hand is in a sling or not.

“But, look, we're just going to drive on. We don't win counties very often, so we're just happy to be in a county final.

“And that's what I said to them here at halftime, when we leaked two goals there, it's important that we drive on and we get to a county final and see where it takes us.” 

Cobh emerged from another open, attacking contest with a 2-27 to 3-14 victory, continuing a scoring run that had already produced 6-20 against Castlelyons in the East Cork final. For Barrett, the 13-a-side format has played its part in freeing players to express themselves.

“We gave away a couple [of goals] as well, so that's to work on between now and two weeks' time, whether there's going to be a lot of stuff done this week… hardly!” Barrett laughed. “But we are getting goals. I think the 13-a-side is good for that, there's a lot of space.

They'll create space, and I think fellas can express themselves more.

It’s been a good season on the hurling front for Cobh, not just in ending a 40-year wait for Junior A success, but in the emergence of an U21 group that now looks central to the club’s next phase.

“At the start of the year, we probably had five or six fellas that were involved with minor last year,” he said. “They were 18, 19, and we had another three or four from the previous year, so there was probably four or five of them starting on the junior team at the start of the year.

“As the year progressed, they grew in strength and they grew in belief, and in fairness, when we got to the East Cork final, there was about eight or nine of them under 21, which is very good, as you can see here today.” 

The fact that they were able to win so comprehensively against Dohenys, despite the game being closely matched at half time and without Wilk, shows what this Cobh group have at their disposal.

“Timmy in fairness, he always brings what he brings. But the lads are hurling well all year, and we had a couple of lads away as well in Amsterdam that were missed as well today.

“But the lads that stood up and came in played really well, and that's what it's all about. It's about a panel, it's about a team, and that's what I keep telling them.

“If one fella's missing, we have to keep going, we have to keep going, and that's what we did today.”