Newtown harbour great expectations
“To be mentioned along with the likes of Birr, you have to do it a couple of times,” admitted Mulcahy.
“Most of the really great sides have done it numerous times.”
In Cork, three clubs have crested the national summit more than once in this increasingly popular competition.
Blackrock have three titles but, since the ‘70s when Cork teams held a near monopoly on the competition with seven crowns, only Midleton in 1988 and Newtown in 2004 have taken the honours.
That is probably symptomatic of the efforts clubs must make simply to win such a fiercely competitive county championship, but is nonetheless a surprising statistic for a county that has won the most inter-county senior All-Irelands.
“You have to take the chance while you get it. You’ll have a couple of good years but a couple of bad years too. When things are going well you have to make the most of it, to extract the most out of it.
“That way, you can walk away happy when you finish hurling. When you’re finished, retire happy.
“There’s no point sitting around at 40 years of age saying ‘Jaysus, it could have been great’.”
Despite their achievements, this is still a young Newtown team with the average age in the mid-20s.
“A lot of this team are 25, 26, going on 27. In four or five years’ time we’ll have a new team and, who knows, maybe we’ll have to adapt, change our style of hurling when we find ourselves getting older.”
The success is already helping to groom the next generation. The U16s won the county title last year and in a parish of its size it won’t be long before some will be promoted to the senior ranks to serve their apprenticeships.
Every team needs new blood to replenish its resources, whether it be in terms of talent, competition or just the very fact that they bring a breath of fresh air to proceedings. They bring hunger too, though Mulcahy is adamant that Newtown are already well-stocked for that particular quality.
Sixteen months ago they surrendered their county, provincial and national title in the semi-final of the Cork championship when they were defeated by Cloyne in front of 16,000 people at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Mulcahy points to James Stephens, back in the semi-final stages less than a year after winning the competition outright, and can’t help but take his hat off to the Village for constructing such an impressive season on the back of last year’s crippling workload.
“It’s a huge credit to them that they’ve got back to the semi-final again after last year. Two years ago we lost our county semi-final and we were even struggling all year. We were going at half pace so that shows just what a good team they are to have come back so far already.”
Down’s Ballygalget, who haven’t represented Ulster in the All-Ireland series in seven years, is Newtown’s next hurdle and Mulcahy is hoping the Cork side’s more updated experience of this stage will play its part.
“We were finished in the first couple of weeks in September last year. After a couple of months off we’re raring to go again now.
"The only downside is the Cork fellas have had a couple of long seasons and last year was no different. Hopefully (experience) will count a lot. Two years ago we were going in blind. We didn’t know where we were going. Now we know what’s required even if we’re still a reasonably young side.”
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