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.