St Finbarr's Paudie Murray: We look at positive side of having dual players, it's a club tradition

The mood in the Barrs camp following their hard-fought 0-22 to 0-19 win over Douglas in the Red FM Division 1 Hurling League was upbeat on Sunday morning.

Manager Paudie Murray was pleased with his sides attitude and determination that ended their opponents unbeaten start to the campaign.

“Yes I am very pleased because under the circumstances of being down a number of players the biggest plus for me was for us to blood some of our younger players who in my book all acquitted themselves very well."

The challenge of Douglas was a serious one on the day and Murray knew it would be a good test for his team.

“What I took from this Douglas team is they looked a side very well coached as their structure was excellent and we knew coming into the game they would be trying to keep their unbeaten record intact,” added Murray.

In his first season in the Barrs hotseat Murray knew that having a good coaching staff was crucial in their bid to reach the Holy Grail of Cork hurling.

“There is very talented squad with a full complement of players available, but I have learned over the years talent doesn’t guarantee you success and they are other things we are trying to work on.

We have 10 players involved with various Cork teams and we have to integrate them back in when available as well as having dual players so there is a lot of work that goes on at this club.” 

It is a family affair on the management side with the Murray family highly involved and brother Kevin among the coaching staff. Kevin's son James is among the minor graduates they are giving game-time to across the spring.

“The management as a whole has been together for a long time as they have all been involved when I was with Cork in camogie and right through a few levels in the Barrs so you could say we know how to tick the right boxes.” 

The performance of Ben Cunningham with a 16-point tally naturally came for praise from his manager.

“Ben is a beautiful striker and when he is on his game, he can be lethal and to be fair to him all the games he has played for us in this campaign have all been positive.” 

UPSIDE

To be fair the Barrs have a number of dual players involved at senior level but Murray doesn’t see it as a problem.

“The first thing I said when we met at the start of the year is that there has to be positives having dual players because some people like to talk about the negatives but for decades it has worked well for the club and why change it.

“The players involved have been playing both codes since they were 12 years old and to me it has always been about avoiding injuries.” 

The championship will see the Barrs pitted against Midleton, Bride Rovers and Newcestown and Murray knows there will be no room for error in that group.

“The league campaign is great for blooding players, but the real action is all about preparing for August when we are in a very tough group.

“Midleton are battle hardened and Bride Rovers and Newcestown are gritty hurling teams so we will need to be in tip top shape to qualify with some tricky games on the horizon.”