Douglas boss Duffy rallies charges for battle with Glen
“It’s wonderful to come out of any game, but particularly against a fine team like CIT, a team which had genuine aspirations to winning the county – aspirations they were entitled to have, too.
“Winning a game like that by a point in extra-time was a great boost, but we can’t live on last week’s dinner.”
Waterford native Duffy says his team should pick from a full panel this weekend. “We’re nearly there, I’d say 90% fine – we have a few knocks and niggles, a couple of concerns, but we’d be confident those will clear up for tomorrow,” says Duffy, as they face Glen Rovers in the county semi-final.
“I hadn’t seen either of their games against Midleton, I was away, but I’ve had plenty of reports since then on the Glen’s performances both days. We know we have a serious challenge ahead, no question about that.”
Cork star Patrick Horgan has been the Glen’s scoring mainstay this season, as Duffy is well aware.
“We’ll probably put 14 on him, apart from the goalkeeper, and take our chances thereafter,” he laughs.
“Joking apart, he represents a serious challenge, but so do other players on the Glen team. It’s not a one-man team, there are other very good players we have to watch, but Patrick is in line to win an All-Star award. That says enough.
“You don’t get nominated for one of those unless you’re performing at the highest level, and he’s done that – he’s proven what he can do. He’s a serious challenge for us, it’s going to be a big objective for us to stop him from scoring.”
For his part, Glen Rovers’ experienced defender Graham Callinan acknowledges the focus on Horgan, but also points to the Blackpool side’s team effort.
“There’s been a lot of talk about Patrick, people say that we rely on him a bit too much maybe, but we have a lot of players working hard to get him the ball as well, and the other forwards are all chipping in too, and they showed the second day against Midleton that they’ve got plenty to contribute as well.”
Callinan says the atmosphere around the Glen has been good these last couple of weeks (“It’s always going to be good buzz around the club when you’re winning matches, long may it continue,”) but he also pays tribute to Douglas, particularly their performance against CIT.
“I was at that game and I thought CIT had some great players, but Douglas had a very good team.
“I’d know some of the lads, the likes of Mark Harrington and Eoin Cadogan, the two Moylans, and they all played very well as a team.”
The Glen did the same in the replayed quarter-final against Midleton, but Callinan says they benefited from extra games earlier in the year also.
“We had two games against the Barrs, people are forgetting that. As for the two games against Midleton, we were probably lucky enough to get out of it the first day, though having said that, Patrick (Horgan) had chances late on and we might have snatched it.
“The important thing is that it went our way the second day and we made it through to the semi-final.”
Eoin Cadogan is Douglas’s best-known player, but Pat Duffy says the entire club is behind the hurler’s success this year.
“Eoin’s a great guy – yes, he’s had a long, hard season, but he’s back with us and fully focused on the club. I don’t want to get into cliches, but he’s got the heart of a lion and he won’t be found wanting tomorrow.
“The whole club has been terrific all year in supporting us, and when I say ‘us’, I mean the entire team, management and backroom staff. Everybody’s worked very hard to get us to this level and hopefully we’ll have another couple of days out.”
Callinan sounds a note of cautious optimism ahead of the game: “You have to be confident going into a game, and they will be, but we won’t be complacent, certainly. We’ve no reason to be.”
Duffy has a more picturesque description: “It’s been a great journey for us so far – like a mystery tour on a bus, and we’ve enjoyed it all immensely. We just hope we don’t run out of diesel!”
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