Rob Downey: 'It's all about the jersey and the people that went before us'

To win this with his club was the pinnacle for Downey

Robert Downey of Glen Rovers in action against John Wigginton Barrett of St Finbarr’s during the Cork County Premier Senior Club Hurling Championship final match between Glen Rovers and St Finbarr's at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Sun, 18 Oct, 2026 - 19:03

Brendan O'Brien

Rob Downey is standing in the tunnel in SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh as a county champion. Though motionless on the outside, his head appears to be spinning.

The Cork defender has a microphone in his hand as he answers questions, players from Ballincollig’s victorious Premier Intermediate side are filing past and calling out in congratulations and their coach Ronan Curran approaches to shake his hand.

He speaks well without ever being quite able to put structure on his feelings.

“Yeah, I don't know if I can I put it into words. When you’re driving in the gates of the Glen club, everyone lives and breathes it. It's all about the Glen and the jersey and what it represents and the people that went before us.

“And I know it was a long time ago, and we probably harp on about the past an awful lot but, as a group, we wanted to write our own bit of it and I'm just delighted we were able to go do that today.”

Downey did more than his bit. He spent a great big chunk of the afternoon keeping tabs on Brian Hayes. His county counterpart and friend signed for three points from play, a highly acceptable return on the Glen’s investment over the course of an hour.

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This, to win this with his club, was the pinnacle. He has no doubt about that, but the knowledge of that made for a tough week last week. Downey was one of those players who had lost three county finals in quick succession not so long ago.

There was a major want in them.

The club’s relegation from the top tier was referenced plenty in the run up to this decider and it got more than a few airings in the hours after it too. They were losing games the Glen were expected to win and Downey was quick with the mea culpa.

“I wouldn’t be slow to admit that as players we allowed standards to drop, in our training and in our preparation.”

Credit was paid to Tomás Mulcahy for his work in rebuilding the machine, for bringing in Tommy Dunne as coach and then introducing Donal O’Rourke when the former Tipperary captain couldn’t commit for 2026.

“We got relegated and came back up and you’re thinking ‘will we ever get over the line’. I don’t know what to say to be honest, I don’t know what to think. I don’t really have any emotions or anything. I’m just over the moon that we got over the line.

“We just have this mentality that we always think we're going to win, no matter what sort of team we have. And yeah, we just kept believing, even after the Blackrock game, and we ended up getting there in the end.”