Ex-Galway, Laois, Antrim and Waterford seniors in our 2014 USA hurling sanctions XV

A mixture of emerging hurling talent and players with inter-county experience have made the move Stateside for the summer.

WE’VE ALREADY PICKED the best fifteen players who will be playing their football in the States this summer, after they appeared in the GAA’s official New York, North American and J1 sanctions list.

Now it’s the turn for the hurling side with a mixture of emerging talent and players with inter-county experience that have made the move Stateside.

1. James Skehill (Galway)

Galway’s goalkeeper for the 2012 All-Ireland senior hurling final, Skehill has also won All-Ireland medals at U21 and minor level. The Cappataggle club man will be lining out for the Galway club in Boston this summer.

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

2. Matthew Collier (Laois)

A member of the Camross club, Collier was in action in Parnell Park in May when Laois exited the Bord Gáis Energy Leinster U21 hurling championship at the hands of Dublin. He’s going to play for San Francisco’s Na Fianna this summer.

Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

3. Jerome Maher (Waterford)

Maher, from the Geraldines club in Waterford, lined out in defence for the county senior side in championship in 2011 when Davy Fitzgerald was at the helm. He caught the eye during the spring with his performances for Waterford IT as they won the Fitzgibbon Cup. He’s made the move to the Na Fianna club in San Francisco.

Source: Cathal Noonan

 4. Cahir Healy (Laois)

Healy was in action for the Laois senior hurlers as recently as last summer and is pictured in action below against Clare’s Colm Galvin in the All-Ireland senior qualifiers. The Portlaoise player will feature for Fr Tom Burke’s hurling club in Dorcester in Boston this summer.

Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

5. Paul Hoban (Galway)

Hoban was part of the Galway senior panel that contested the 2012 All-Ireland final and has featured in the league for Anthony Cunningham’s side in recent seasons. He played for the county U21 team beaten by Clare in last August’s All-Ireland semi-final and with his club Loughrea in the 2013 Galway county senior final. Hoban is set to play for Naomh Pádraig in San Francisco.

Source: Mike Shaughnessy

6. Joe O’Dwyer (Tipperary)

The Killenaule club man was centre-back on the Waterford IT side that claimed Fitzgibbon Cup glory against Cork IT in Belfast back in March. He’s switched to the Harry Bolands club in Chicago this summer.

Source: Presseye/Declan Roughan/INPHO

7. Paul Flaherty (Galway)

A member of the Abbeyknockmoy club in Galway, Flaherty was part of the Tribesemen minor setup that swept to All-Ireland glory in 2011. This year he lined out in defence for Davy Fitzgerald’s Limerick IT team that reached the semi-finals of the Fitzgibbon Cup. He’s transferred to the Tipperary club in Boston.

Source: James Crombie

8. Mark Mansfield (Kilkenny)

The Mullinavat club man lined out for the Kilkenny U21 hurler’s last month when they exited the Bord Gáis Energy Leinster U21 championship at the hands of Wexford. He scored 0-2 in that game from midfield but will be in action for the Wexford side in Boston this summer.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

9. James Regan (Galway)

Regan is a very experienced operator having won an All-Ireland U21 medal with Galway in 2011 and an All-Ireland senior club medal with St Thomas in 2013. He’s played senior for the Tribesmen as well and featured in the 2012 and 2013 championships. The Galway club in Boston can call on his services for the next couple of months.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

10. Michael Moloney (Kilkenny)

The Blacks and Whites clubman has impressed in recent seasons with his free taking abilities for Dublin IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup. He has also represented Kilkenny at U21 and intermediate level in recent years. He’ll be playing for the Wexford club from Boston this summer.

Michael Moloney (left) in action for Dublin IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup.

Source: Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO

11. Keith Hogan (Kilkenny)

Hogan was part of the Kilkenny U21 squad that reached the 2009 All-Ireland final against Clare. Last October he hit the headlines with a superb exhibition of free taking that saw him notch 0-10 as his club Clara won the Kilkenny senior hurling final against Carrickshock. He has moved to New York club Long Island Gaels.

Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO

12. Zane Keenan (Laois)

Keenan has plenty inter-county experience at various grades for Laois. The attacker, who is a native of Camross, will be in action for the Fr Tom Burke’s hurling club in Boston.

Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO

13. Jack Shelly (Tipperary)

The Mullinahone club man was part of the Tipperary minor hurling side that won the All-Ireland final after a replay against Dublin in 2012. He’s transferred to New York side Long Island Gaels.

Source: Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO

14. Liam Watson (Antrim)

An experienced campaigner with the Antrim senior hurlers, Watson also won an AIB All-Ireland senior hurling club medal with Loughgiel Shamrocks in 2012 when he bagged 3-7 in their final win at Croke Park. He has switched to the Naomh Pádraig club in San Francisco.

Source: James Crombie/INPHO

15. Thomas O’Hanrahan (Kilkenny)

From the Thomastown club in Kilkenny, O’Hanrahan is another player to have played for the Cats U21′s when they lost their Leinster quarter-final against Wexford last month. Previously he won an All-Ireland minor medal with a final win over Clare in 2010. He’ll now be playing in the colours of the Galway club in Boston

Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

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John Mullane: Joe Canning can't continue to carry Tribe on shoulders

Galway's Joe Canning stretches for the sliotar after losing his hurl in a tangle with Kilkenny's Aidan Fogarty at O'Connor Park, Tullamore. Photo: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE

Eamon O'Shea and Anthony Cunningham will walk into the last-chance saloon in Thurles next Saturday evening, sit down and order a drink that could well be their last.

Defeat is unthinkable for Tipperary manager O'Shea and his Galway counterpart Cunningham in a massive All-Ireland senior hurling qualifier at Semple Stadium.

For the loser, it's his last game in charge of his native county. And as former Tipp manager Liam Sheedy noted at a county board meeting, playing careers are on the line too.

Galway suffered from the concession of too many frees against Kilkenny on Saturday night.

And four of their forwards – Niall Burke, Joe Canning, Johnny Glynn and Joseph Cooney – didn't score from play. That tells a tale. Much of the spotlight will fall on Joe, once again.

I can relate to what he's going through in these situations.

Going out week after week with that almost unbearable pressure to deliver must be so difficult. And I suspect Joe puts a huge amount of the pressure on himself to perform.

It's a recurring theme. If Joe doesn't play well or is below par, it's almost certain Galway will lose. That's unfair on Joe, but until Galway find two or three players of a comparable quality, they will continue to struggle. And if they don't find them, they're going to struggle for a number of years.

I remember carrying that burden of scoring responsibility during my time with Waterford. It became like a noose around my neck, weighing me down and affecting all aspects of my life.

I'd miss inter-county hurling on match days, but retiring brought relief. I felt like a new man. That weight of expectation had lifted.

I remember leading up to games that I'd be narky and edgy. I felt I had to keep on top of everything. My preparation for games was meticulous. I couldn't lower my standards for a second in training. It's not a nice pressure to have.

Joe probably knows that if he doesn't play well or doesn't deliver the type of cameo performance that illuminated the drawn match against Kilkenny, Galway are not going to win. He's watching other players around him that were hitting the heights in 2012 but have dipped since then. That's affecting the lad too and he's asking himself: 'Why should I be the one to carry the can?'

Conor Cooney is playing well but other players need to step forward and take some of the heat off Joe.

Look at other successful inter-county teams and they have four or five marquee forwards. Galway have just one, and if Joe's not playing well and there's nobody else to bail the team out, I'm sure that's upsetting for Joe and it will affect him.

I'd get him back on the frees too. Cooney's dander is up, he's full of confidence and he'll score from play but the more Joe is involved, the better it is. If he gets a couple of early frees, his confidence will follow. He's captain, too, and that brings added pressure. It's time for the Burkes – Niall and David – to finally deliver.

If Galway are to stay in the championship, these two really need to rediscover their form from 2012.

How Galway react to defeat will go a long way towards determining the outcome of Saturday's showdown.

Three games in as many weeks can work two ways. Galway have momentum and match practice but they'll find it difficult to lift themselves. However, they're coming up against a Tipperary team in a similar boat – low on confidence and racked by uncertainty.

It's all set up for a cracking tie and I'm backing Tipperary to achieve that first championship win under O'Shea.

They have a better selection of players and a couple of marquee forwards who can do damage if they get going and get that bit between the teeth. Tipperary by two or three points for me and if that happens, Anthony Cunningham is out of a job.

Still, Galway isn't a county renowned for managerial longevity and Cunningham is just the latest man to step on board the merry-go-round.

Magical night for Ken the icing on great Deise period

It's been a great few days for Waterford hurling. Our minors are through to a fifth Munster final in six seasons, Ken McGrath's benefit match was a roaring success and our seniors produced an efficient display to bounce Laois out of the championship on Saturday evening.

To the minors, first. They'll be underdogs in the Munster final against Limerick but after winning just one of the previous four provincial deciders, we could do with another.

Friday night then and what can you say? More than 7,000 people turned up to pay tribute to Ken and they came from all over the country. And what about the people of Waterford?

A fantastic response and it just goes to show that when difficult situations arise, there are no better people to rally round each other. It was no more than Ken deserved.

The highlight for me was playing alongside my idol – the ex-Limerick player Ciaran Carey.

I went out of my way to get my photo taken with Ciaran and it was just one of those magical nights that I'll never forget.

PRESSURE

Waterford's victory over Laois capped off the weekend. Make no mistake, this Waterford team – and manager Derek McGrath – found themselves under massive pressure before the game.

It's evident now that supporters are going to have to accept that a style of play is in place – and it's not going to change any time soon.

It would have been difficult for Derek to tinker with it. He's after going with something for the best part of six or seven months and supporters will have to accept that this is the way forward.

Laois tried something similar, with that extra man at the back, and it failed. If they had gone a bit more direct, they could have put in a better performance but I was pleased with Waterford.

Arriving at Walsh Park, I was worried, but it seems that if you take Laois out of Portlaoise, they don't offer very much.

They remain a work in progress but the Laois supporters were disappointed with that showing, which was their worst of the year.

Waterford had their homework done and a lot of the bigger players really stepped up to the mark. Kevin Moran, Brick Walsh and Pauric Mahony were very good.

Shane Walsh chipped in with a couple of goals and the pressure is off Waterford now. Derek's after getting that first championship win and if they get a bigger team in the next round, they'll go in as underdogs and have a right crack at it.

Faithful comeback proves they really do care

That was a massive victory for Offaly in Ballycastle yesterday. And it just goes to show that the Offaly players DO care about their county.

They rolled up their sleeves when it was really needed, coming from five points down to hit 1-4 without reply.

Offaly are probably at their lowest point for a long number of years, but to go to Ballycastle and produce late heroics like that is testament to their character. Antrim manager Kevin Ryan will be disappointed. He's after doing tremendous work up there and I still believe that Antrim are going in the right direction.

Their U-21s were in an All-Ireland final last year and they beat Laois in Portlaoise. OK, they gave a below par performance against Wexford and it would have been a massive boost to win yesterday, but Offaly needed this one more.

Read The Original Article At The Irish Independent

The Great Debate: Does hurling need the black card?

Jonathan Glynn of Galway is brought down by Kilkenny's Cillian Buckley, resulting in a late Galway penalty in last week's Leinster SHC semi-final. It was the sort of challenge that would have resulted in a black card in Gaelic football. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE

No, says Donnchadh Boyle

The black card was introduced to football after probably the most extensive consultation process with various stakeholders undertaken in the history of the Association, but that doesn't mean it is needed in hurling or that it will work.

Part of the problem in football stems from how it was refereed. Slowly things like body-checking became the norm, and the black card was brought in to deal with problems that had developed over a number of seasons and across several teams.

Hurling is much different. While there are examples of cynical play, it has yet to become part of the furniture as it was in football. It's not that hurlers are less likely to commit such acts or that managers are reluctant to bend the rules, it's just much harder to employ such tactics when the ball moves at such pace and can travel from one end of the field to another in a couple of seconds and scores can be taken from great distance.

Using the new interpretation of penalty regulations as a crutch to prop up the argument for the introduction of a black card doesn't wash either.

Admittedly, penalties are harder to score now, with the ball having to be struck from the 20-metre line, so defenders might take their chances and concede them a la Cillian Buckley last weekend. The Kilkenny man decided hauling Jonathan Glynn down was a better option than letting him get his shot away as he bore down on goal.

There's a simple solution to that that does not require major change.

Either bring the penalty spot in closer or reduce numbers on the line to give the attacking team a better chance of finding the net. That way, conceding a penalty wouldn't be as attractive as it is now and that should sort that argument without the introduction of any new set of rules.

Secondly, there are the practicalities of it. Would any such motion get through?

Not a chance. It's not too long ago Eddie Keher was calling for the use of yellow and red cards to be scrapped and his comments helped spark the formation of a group to review hurling.

In that light, what are the chances of another card being added? The black card was only narrowly passed in football after the Football Review Committee lobbied hard and made a presentation to delegates at Congress. It's hard to imagine any such move getting the required support at ground level.

Down the line, managers might come up with new ways to side-step the rule book but at the moment the black card is neither needed nor welcome.

Yes, says  Cliona Foley

Sport is full of anomalies. Chewy Luis got hit by a new 'three bites and you're out' rule yesterday and the Twitter machine exploded.

It was quickly pointed out that Suarez has been banned for 34 games since 2010 without receiving a single red card; further proof, if needed, that discipline in sport regularly stretches the findings of the rule books.

You could argue that if a Gaelic player sank his teeth into an opponent (and it has been alleged in the past year, though not proven) then he would have had the 'Treor Oifigiuil' thrown at him and been banned for six to 12 months for bringing the game into disrepute.

But within the GAA's own disciplinary system, at the moment there is one howling anomaly that should be addressed.

When Cillian Buckley took down Jonathan Glynn to concede a penalty in the dying minutes of last week's Leinster hurling semi-final your automatic reaction was 'black card, ref!'

Only, of course, this was hurling, where there is no such thing as a black card.

But why the hell not?

The introduction of a black card to Gaelic football this year was designed to punish deliberate, cynical fouling and only the most entrenched die-hard could argue that it hasn't had some success.

Yes, there will still be times where players will 'take one for the team' this summer, as Sean Cavanagh did when he rugby-tackled Conor McManus last year.

But we are no longer seeing the plethora of rugby-style blatant pull-downs that used to pepper the final five minutes of any inter-county football game of consequence.

Yet, hey ho, it's not a problem if hurlers do it, which they do regularly, especially close to goal.

Hurling may be threatening to give us another second golden summer but, no matter what the purists tell you, it is not without its own dark arts.

Catching an opponent's hurl with your hand or elbow, and the cynical use of the 'spare hand', are among the skilful transgressions in the new mile-a-minute modern game.

Referees, thankfully, have got better at spotting these slick fouls but, under hurling rules 5.17 and 5.18, a deliberate pull-down or trip still only warrants a yellow.

Every time the GAA makes a rule change it ruminates long and hard over whether it can be applied in the 'club game,' arguing you can't have one rule for some and not for all. So how then can they have different disciplinary rules for their own two codes?

A pull-down is a pull-down. A deliberate trip is a deliberate trip, a 'deliberate collision' after the ball is what it says on the tin.

If you think those only happen in football you're not watching much hurling.

If you get a black card for deliberately taking out an opponent in one code then you should get it in the other.

To quote Dougal: "That's mad, Ted!"

Read More Of This Article At The Irish Indepndent

Galway are capable of catching fire when you least expect it

Joe Canning shows his disappointment after Galway’s defeat to Kilkenny in the 2012 All-Ireland 

final replay. Photo: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE

"Well there's no time for Galway to feel sorry for themselves!"

In the RTE commentary booth, Ger Canning's words could have been the credits starting to roll on a disaster movie. We had just witnessed a jolting, four-point turnaround in the 2012 All-Ireland hurling final replay.

Within seconds of Joe Canning's shot rebounding to safety from the butt of a Canal End upright for what would have been an equalising goal, Cillian Buckley had struck a Hill End point for Kilkenny. The natural thought process was precisely the one now being articulated in the commentary.

To wonder about Galway's capacity to cope. Seconds later, Cyril Donnellan swung recklessly on JJ Delaney in front of the Cusack Stand – splitting the Kilkenny man – and, after consultation with Barry Kelly, James McGrath sent him off. Between Canning hitting the post and Donnellan seeing red was a stretch of precisely 56 seconds.

Is that the length of time it took this Galway team to die? Anthony Cunningham's inaugural season as manager brought a first Leinster title and, maybe more thrillingly, evidence of innovation and ruthlessness in Galway's hurling.

They humiliated Kilkenny in the provincial final, exploding from the traps to lead by a startling 14 points at half-time.

Everything about them seemed a repudiation of caricature. Because Galway – with their three-man midfield, rotating forwards and a tactic of breaking high ball rather than attempting to engage in an unwinnable fetching match with Kilkenny – had found a way of hurling on their own terms, not the opposition's. Cunningham was overseeing revolution.

SLAUGHTER

But in the time it took the on-screen digital clock to travel from 47.05 to 48.01 on September 30, 2012, everything unravelled. And, in the next 13 minutes, they would be out-scored by 2-6 to 0-1. A game that looked to be building towards something epochal lurched suddenly into slaughter. Kilkenny won by 12 points; Galway slipping home to old, familiar noises.

Twenty one months later, is there still life in the Cunningham revolution? Nobody knows. On Wednesday, Tony Keady found himself drawn into hurling talk with some people in Oranmore, but pointedly dodged their invitation to make a prediction for tomorrow.

What could be argued with any certainty? Keady was one of the great centre-backs of the game and a man who, through his 1980s pomp, seemed to become emboldened by the pressure of big hurling days.

He is now a selector with the county U-21s and someone who believes implicitly in Galway's capacity to pull lightning from the sky. But tomorrow in Tullamore? He feels no wiser than the next man.

What can be said with certainty is that Cunningham's Galway has not summoned a truly compelling performance since September of 2012.

They have exited successive National Leagues at the semi-final stage (both times to Kilkenny) and lost championship games last year against Dublin (Leinster final) and Clare (All-Ireland quarter-final) by an average margin of nine points.

Their recent struggle to evict Laois from the Leinster championship bore echoes of a similar struggle last summer, only this one being more pained and decidedly more dramatic.

So the search for progress seems to be leading down blind alleys again.

When Conor Hayes took them to the '05 All-Ireland final against Cork, the team was, rightly, lauded for an attacking spontaneity that had swamped Kilkenny in a high-scoring semi-final. Yet Hayes suspected that the fuel of anger would not go amiss with certain players and, in the week of the final, a video analysis session offered repeated viewings of John Allen's championship preview for 'The Sunday Game' the previous May.

The intended verdict of the session was that Allen, Cork's manager, had been dismissive of Galway's prospects. It made no difference, Cork winning the final by five points.

When Ger Loughnane then replaced Hayes as manager after a flat championship in '06, he targeted what he'd previously identified in his punditry as a lack of on-field leadership in Galway. Or "men of substance" as he put it.

That winter, Loughnane pushed the Galway players ruthlessly over Paudge O'Connor's all-weather gallops in Tubber. He'd salt the agony by having them run with hands in the air and, after training, introduced them to the delicious torture of out-door ice-baths.

Loughnane's view seemed to tally with an outside perception of Galway hurling that the players were soft. That, in crisis, they would equivocate.

A modified baseball pitching machine was also brought in to help deal with their perceived weakness in the air. And the sports science expertise of Ger Hartmann was referenced to ensure that mistakes made in Loughnane's final year as Clare manager – i.e. over-training the team – would not be repeated.

Yet, in the '07 championship, Galway fell meekly to Clare at Cusack Park in a vaguely surreal qualifier, then went toe to toe with Kilkenny for a wonderful hour in an All-Ireland quarter-final only to end up losing by 10 points.

One year later, they seemed to have regressed again, the qualifier defeat to a 14-man Cork pre-empting Loughnane's departure.

This was the day that signalled Joe Canning's arrival on the big stage, the 19-year-old Portumna kid delivering 2-12 in only his second championship game for an otherwise subdued team.

Canning would be named Young Hurler of the Year for his efforts and win the first of three All Star awards.

Rightly acknowledged as one of the most naturally gifted hurlers to grace the game, he is Galway's captain this year. Yet he missed all bar the latter stages of the league through injury, Conor Cooney thus inheriting the job of free-taker.

A feeling seems to be growing in Galway that Canning is now prone to drifting to the periphery of games in which they need a marquee presence, albeit his performance for a beaten team in last year's Leinster final was heroic.

Over the last two seasons, his scoring return from play in league and championship (he has started 11 games) is 1-19. An average of exactly 0-2 per game. To beat Kilkenny tomorrow, Galway – almost certainly – will need more than that from Joe.

True, they retain a capacity like few others to spook Brian Cody's men as their championship victories of '01, '05 and '12 will signify. Yet, hindsight gives those victories the status of scratch-card wins today. They return as random guerilla strikes, thrilling aberrations in the general tenor of the rivalry.

After all, in the 26 years since Galway's last senior All-Ireland win, Kilkenny have stockpiled 11.

Keady was a stalwart of that '88 team, a side with a name for being hard-nosed and outwardly self-confident. Cunningham was part of it too, albeit cursed with the role of perennial substitute.

When the Galway walls came tumbling down in that 2012 replay, Keady says he was with his wife and children "grinding my teeth" in the Davin Stand. He'd been thrilled by the quality of Galway's hurling all summer but, now, watched the dream die "in less than a minute".

And the status of that dream now?

"If they don't put up a good performance against Kilkenny in Tullamore, it's gone," he says. "That is for sure. We need to know what direction we're going after Sunday, that's the bottom line. Last year was a total disaster, we just want to forget about it completely.

"Like if you look at Joe Canning, Mother of God, at 18 and 19 he was considered our finest of all time. But the years are flying by. What is he now? 25 going on 26? It's unbelievable what's happening. So we really have to push the boat out on Sunday to see where we are."

They made mistakes in 2012, no question. The decision to play goalkeeper James Skehill in the replay just two days after dislocating his shoulder in training was ill-advised. Similarly, Canning's comments between draw and replay about Henry Shefflin's sportsmanship sparked ire across Kilkenny that, whilst never directly referenced in a Cody team-talk, created palpable tension.

But it must be remembered too that Galway hurling had to cope with far more than regret last winter. The tragic loss of Niall Donoghue in October devastated team-mates for whom the pursuit of a Celtic Cross must suddenly have seemed crushingly unimportant.

Few doubt Cunningham and his players to be one of the groups that could, conceivably, lift the Liam MacCarthy in September. But those ruinous 56 seconds of September 2012 may have scarred them and it is worth asking, what did they signify? Bear in mind that as Eamonn Taaffe scored the goal that effectively won the '95 All-Ireland final for Clare, Loughnane had a slip of paper in his hand to have Taaffe replaced by Alan Neville.

"I was looking out on the field to see where the referee was to see if I could come on to make the switch," he subsequently remarked in his biography, 'Raising The Banner'. "The next thing I saw the Clare flags hitting the sky at the Canal End. I thought it was Fergal Hegarty who had scored the goal." The deities smiled on Clare that day.

Is Galway's greatest weakness just being cursed with rotten luck?

You have to wonder what the width of that post inflicted upon them two years ago? Maybe Kilkenny would have won regardless, but a Galway goal at the time would have meant they had taken six out of the game's last eight scores to tie the contest. It would have equated to serious momentum.

Their story has been strikingly underwhelming since, yet Keady will go to Tullamore tomorrow clinging to familiar hope.

"People are seriously hard on Galway," he says. "And I suppose the way things are gone, the fans are aching for something. I'd say a lot of them would be nearly happy enough if Galway got beaten by three or four points and put up a performance.

"But the bottom line is they have to perform. And you know I don't think anyone could say for certain that they won't win. Like everyone is talking them down, but Galway hurling is never that far off the track! They're always capable of catching fire when you least expect it."

Until they do, though, that cold question will remain. Did this team's future die in 56 seconds?

Read The Original Article At The Irish Independent

Damien Cahalane – watching the 2013 Cork hurling heartbreak and helping the 2014 success

Source: James Crombie/INPHO

DAMIEN CAHALANE FELT the heartbreak experienced by the Cork hurlers in 2013 but is delighted to be pitching in with their success for the Munster campaign in 2014.

Cahalane was part of Cork’s hurling plans in 2012 before decamping to the football squad last season. He watched on during last September’s epic two-game hurling saga in Croke Park and shared in the pain as Cork fell short in their efforts to claim the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

This season Cahalane has opted this year to juggle commitments to both Cork setups. After playing a starring role in the hurlers latest win on Sunday over Clare, it’s a decision that is paying off.

“These are the days you play for with a massive Cork following  there. It would have been selfish to say I felt I should have been there last year. I didn’t feel I should have been there, I wasn’t part of the panel.

“But I had been part of the panel the year before. I felt the lads heartbreak after losing those finals. I was absolutely disgusted for them. Sunday is just a small step along the road of putting things right.”

Cahalane battling with Clare's Peter Duggan for possession.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

Working hard at the coalface of the Cork defence and repelling the Clare rearguard were Cahalane’s primary duties on Sunday. But in the first-half he even managed to pitch in at the other end, blasting over a monster effort from the right wing in the 28th minute. It was his first hurling championship score for Cork and Cahalane savoured it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever found myself that far out the pitch before,” laughed the St Finbarr’s club man. “It was a great ball from Aidan (Walsh), I found myself in a bit of space but there were lads rushing towards me so I felt I’d better hit the shot quick. I got it off and it went over. I was just delighted to see it go over.”

With the hurling victory parked, Cahalane’s attention shifts to next weekend’s football assignment with Cork against Tipperary. But the prospect of a unique Munster hurling final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against Limerick next month excites Cahalane. Three years ago he was part of a Cork U21 team that fell short against Limerick in a wondrous and epic provincial decider.

Cahalane in action in that 2011 game which Cork lost by 4-20 to 1-27 against Limerick.

Source: James Crombie

“It would be wrong to say that we weren’t thinking about it,” admits Cahalane. “It is a massive incentive. The last Munster final to ever be played down there.

“It was something to really set your eyes on and say that you wanted to win on Sunday to get to that. It’ll give the Cork fans a day out in the Páirc. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a Munster hurling final there so it’ll be interesting.

“Limerick have been coming strong with U21 teams with a long while. They’d a massive win over Tipperary and they’re looking in good form. They’re very intense and very aggressive so it’ll be a huge challenge.”

The Tipperary and Waterford players before the 2011 Munster senior hurling final.

Source: James Crombie

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