Clubs deserve a break, says Bowen

IT’S been over a year since Erin’s Own made the traumatic decision to pull out of the Cork senior hurling quarter-final without hitting a ball, and even though the club has recovered, going on to reach this Sunday’s senior final where they will face Cloyne, traces of bitterness still remain.

Then, two of their key players, Brian Corcoran and Kieran Murphy, had been injured the previous week while helping Cork defeat Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final. But the County Board refused to give Erin’s Own a postponement; outraged at their treatment, Erin’s Own withdrew from the championship. Seen by many — even within the club itself, despite a declared unanimity — as a mistake, current team manager Martin Bowen isn’t convinced. There was a principle at stake, a principle about which he still feels very strongly.

“It’s hard to say whether or not we made the right decision, even still; the situation from our point of view was that we should have been made an allowance by the board. Everyone can see, with the benefit of hindsight, what happened this year (all quarter-finals were postponed at the request of the Cork team and management, to give them a clear run at the three-in-a-row attempt), but there were lots of other things happening also.

“There’s a worm that’s eating into the GAA, the impact of the inter-county scene on the clubs. I just feel it’s becoming more and more difficult to get people involved with teams, it’s becoming more difficult to keep players going at club level.

“I don’t think we’ll do anything ‘til it’s too late, but we already have a very serious situation in the clubs. People talk about it, but it doesn’t look to me like they’re prepared to do anything about it. Every club has fantastic facilities these days (Erin’s Own are state-of-the-art, fully-floodlit training pitch, fantastic pavilion, their own museum), you look at Cloyne, they have major plans in place. All of this is done on a voluntary basis. All GAA people know this, that in the age we’re now living in we need a dose of reality.

“The people with the power in the GAA need to realise the great work that’s being done at club level, and what it’s costing people to continue to do that work on a voluntary basis. They need to react now, and fast, to the problems being faced by clubs over the timing of games. At the moment, that’s not being done.”

The evidence for Martin’s claims? Having been more or less idle all summer, Erin’s Own have found themselves playing the three most important rounds of the championship — quarter-final, semi-final and final in the last few weeks of September/first weeks of October. Their semi-final match against Sars was played in a deluge, more a war of attrition than a hurling match — a game of survival. Without a doubt, it’s a problem that needs addressing, soon. And, if the weather forecast is to be believed they could be in for more of the same.

It could have had an adverse affect on the club, could have split it down the middle, but it hasn’t. In fact, this year the response has been magnificent. “The lads have been fantastic,” says Martin.

“We started out on the 19th of January, played Cloyne in the semi-final of last year’s league, below in Cloyne, lost it by a couple of points.

“It’s amazing now that at the end of the championship season we meet again, the last two standing. We have a big panel of players, but with four lads involved with the Cork senior panel, a lot of players in college, we’ve needed every one of them.

“Everything that’s been asked of them, they’ve done. We started the year with the ambition of getting to the county semi-final, we wanted to move forward from last year. We did that, but now we want a bit more — when you get to a final, you want to win it. But Cloyne want to do the same, don’t they? That’s the great thing about this game, and whoever wins, we’ll shake hands afterwards, on we go again.”

And what of Cloyne? “I think Cloyne are a fantastic team and a fantastic club,” he says, but — given the smile in his eyes — you question his sincerity. “I mean it, genuinely,” he replies, growing serious. “I played against them for years, many times, I know all the lads involved with them.

“You’d have to say they’re a fantastic team to come back, come back and come back. This is their third county final in a row, beaten in the first two, beaten in the semi-final the year before. They’re a fantastic club.

“Having said that, we can’t feel sorry for them — we have our own job to do, to win the county on Sunday, and we’ll be doing everything in our power to do that. It has the makings of a great final and I hope it turns out like that.

“The forecast isn’t great, but the park is in fantastic condition. Hopefully it will be a great final, and Erin’s Own will come out the right side.”