Erin's Own channelled last season's hurt to get back to where they belong

Relegation from Premier Senior need not be fatal. It wasn't for Glen Rovers three seasons ago, and it wasn't for Erin’s Own either. 

The Caherlag side have bounced back at the first time of asking, coasting through to the Senior A title on Sunday after a five-point win over Carrigtwohill that felt much more comfortable than the scoreline suggested.

At the beginning of the season, manager Brendan O’Riordan stepped into the role to become the fourth Erin’s Own manager in as many years. And, after three seasons of struggling at Premier Senior before eventually dropping a tier, his task was to engineer their return.

New management, new opposition and a new challenge provided the cleanest of clean slates. And, to their credit, that return to Premier Senior was swiftly and emphatically achieved.

“I think the first year of being relegated you do have an opportunity to use that pain, because there is pain,” said O’Riordan after the victory. “To use that pain to try and motivate players and to get themselves back up and to try and make amends.

“Because they were disappointed in themselves, they feel they let themselves down, they let the management down, they let the club down. And they wanted it. And I suppose that pain is raw and it does help teams to come back up on the first bounce.

“We looked at everything and we started with a completely fresh group,” O’Riordan explained. “It was my first year in the job and most of the other management team, the same.

“So it was a fresh perspective on everything and I suppose it gave everybody a chance to start from a blank page rather than any kind of biases maybe against them, because of what happened last year.” 

While dropping a grade was hardly a desirable outcome 12 months ago, it gave Erin’s Own a chance to put together a run of championship wins and reignite confidence within the camp.

They probably spent the last three years struggling for wins. A draw here, a draw there, just about avoiding a relegation playoff. 

"That was the story for the last number of years and I suppose it nearly was inevitable that we were going to get relegated eventually,” he admitted. “If you're at that part of the championship every year and then you come down, you start winning games, I suppose it gives you confidence.

“Everybody likes to win, you get a bit of momentum, you start believing in what you're doing in training, what you're being asked to do and it kind of mushrooms from there on.” 

A return to the top table will be challenging, but promotion to Division 1 in the league will offer Erin’s Own a chance to re-acquaint themselves with the best prior to the beginning of championship.

“That’ll be another challenge and it'll be another drawing board moment where you've got to look at it and reassess,” he said. “A number of years ago when Martin Bowen was the manager, he did invest in the younger players.

“You had four or five of them there today and they've got the benefit from being thrown in at a deep end maybe three years ago in the league.” 

Hungry

There were six in total that featured in their P2 Minor hurling final defeat to Killeagh in 2022 that lined out again on Sunday. Cian Dunphy, Peter O’Shea, Matty O’Riordan and Finn O’Brien all started, while Shane Irwin and Tiernan Connell were brought in from the bench.

Dunphy and O’Riordan were so influential in that defeat of Carrig. O’Shea was the star of the show in their semi-final win over Watergrasshill, O’Brien was excellent in the group stages.

Those four starters were integral to this championship win. They will be integral again when Erin’s Own line out back where they belong in 2027.