The smaller the club, the bigger the heart
St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield in Clare were fortunate to have in their midst a sportswriter of Christy O’Connor’s eye and penmanship to chart their peaks and valleys.
‘The Club’ rightly won an Irish sportsbook of the year award a few years back.
A small West Texas high school football team, the Permian Panthers, which holds the town of Odessa in thrall every week, got even luckier.
Their obsession was the inducement required for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, H.G. Bissinger, to move his family and pause his life for a year in order to undertake a year-in-the-life project.
What he unearthed was gold dust: ‘Friday Night Lights’ became a New York Times best-selling book, a hit movie and a five-season television drama.
There’s no sense of Hollywood in Castlehaven, but there was even less in Odessa, Texas. And the back-story of the two in-a-row Cork football champions is equally compelling, if properly told.
Yesterday’s storming 0-16 to 1-11 victory at Páirc Ui Chaoimh was their fifth title and, though such debates are spurious, arguably the most persuasive in terms of its execution.
Castlehaven isn’t a town or a village, it’s a parish where the birth of every male sweeps through Union Hall and its hinterland like word of Christmas sleighs. Little wonder. It requires the unflinching discipline of every family which has left the area in returning their offspring to the club to keep the wheels greased. That doesn’t guarantee success of itself, but it keeps Castlehaven senior and serious.
Niall Cahalane has several other sons to follow his eldest, Damien, back west to get their fix and if any of them are as true a facsimile of their father as the current Cork defender, Castlehaven will regularly be hanging around Páirc ui Chaoimh in October.
Cahalane could have chosen to reflect last night on many aspects of yesterday’s victory, but the one that was foremost was Mark Collins’ diving block to foil a Nemo goal chance in the final frantic minutes of the game. These things make a difference to small clubs with big hearts.
“Over the last three years, this group has built up a bit of character, they just don’t lie down and it was typified by Mark, and fellas putting their body on the line,” Cahalane said.
“A couple of us have always come back to Castlehaven (from Cork city, where they live), because it’s in the bloodlines. We know what has gone before, and what fellas did to make it happen. We buy into that completely. It’s a family club in every sense, there are a lot of brothers, a lot of cousins. That makes it so fellas always want to do it that bit more for the fella beside him. That bond shines through every single day.”
Why was this fifth Cork success especially sweet? Well, it came straight after the fourth; successive championships is a rare and admirable thing. Beating Nemo twice in the one campaign is another, in any season. And beating a football side like Rangers, largely on their own terms — that’s the clincher.
Twelve months ago Haven pipped Duhallow with a late fisted goal in a final that was hauntingly bad. Perhaps there were reasons for that. The previous year, they had lost a final to UCC that hung around them like a bad smell.
Yesterday, there was no handbrake. And the fact that Nemo produced their best half of football this season made for a surprisingly uplifting first half of football for the 7,258 watchers down the Marina.
The high point was the deliciously worked 26th minute Nemo goal by veteran attacker Alan Cronin — kudos to James Masters for the patience and vision to make the pass — but it was one of many. By the 20th minute, scores were coming at a rate of one every 90 seconds, and though the city side were offensively potent, their defence failed early and often to quieten the energy-ball that was Castlehaven full forward Brian Hurley. The Cork attacker finished the game with 12 points, 75% of Castlehaven’s scores, and while it might have been a stain on the air of jogo bonito, pragmatism surely had to dictate that Nemo Rangers drop an extra defender back to cut off the channel into Hurley.
Unsurprisingly, the man of the match didn’t see it that way.
“We’ve come up against extra defenders a lot,” said Hurley afterwards, “but it was nice to see 15 v 15, not to see a blanket defence in a county final. I though there was some nice free-flowing football there. Nemo’s goal was top class and it was refreshing to see both teams going at it hammer and tongs and let the best team win.”
Despite Cronin’s goal, Haven were only 1-8 to 0-10 down at the interval. Their spine was better than Nemo’s, not least because it was consistent throughout. Midfielders Sean Dineen and Dermot Hurley provided an impressive platform, Mark Collins worked selflessly and intelligently, and Brian Hurley was unmarkable.
How good are they beyond the boundaries of Cork? Much improved on last season, it would seem.
“This one is probably sweeter than last year,” agreed Hurley. “We experienced the dark side in 2011 and that has stood to us because nobody wanted to go back there.
“We’re three years together and (Niall) Cahalane has said we’re the Castlehaven team that’s come out of Castlehaven, but I sincerely doubt that when you consider the legends like Cleary, Tompkins and Niall himself. No, we’re just keeping the tradition going. We’re a small parish, but it’s important to keep the place on the map.”
Once Seanie Cahalane had orchestrated a celebratory sing song, the players went back out onto the field for the post mortems with the neighbours. Into the bosom of their families.
“We’ve no other distractions to the football down there,” laughed Hurley. “If anyone’s going golfing, there’s 10 going. We know each other’s movements, we’re on the phone to each other two or three times a day. Club is family.”
Clear eyes. Full heart.
Can’t lose.
