Castlelyons looking to come full circle

CASTLELYONS’ fairytale season at minor hurling level continues as they head into tomorrow’s Premier 1 final against favourites Blackrock.

Just a year ago they were in a similar position, facing into the Premier 2 final against Bandon. Having overcome that test after a replay they enjoyed a meteoric rise and rather than simply make up the numbers in Premier 1 they have showed their determination and resolve in battling their way to Sunday’s final.

The fixture list wasn’t kind to the east Cork club early in the championship as they found themselves pitted against Blackrock and Midleton in their opening two games. The Rockies outplayed them 3-10 to 1-7 before Midleton made it two defeats from two. But three consecutive wins, including a revenge triumph over Midleton, earned Castlelyons an unlikely shot at the Premier 1 title.

“It’s absolutely huge,” admitted Castlelyons selector Seán Kenny.

“First time in our history being here, it’s our first time competing at this grade really so it’s a massive achievement already to even get this far, it’s brilliant. And there’s fierce excitement in the parish so it’s great and well deserved, they’ve trained hard.

“We won the Premier 2 last year and we said we’d give it a go and see how we get on in Premier 1; never dreamt we’d get this far, just shows the character in the team, they’ve been unreal this year, it’s been a great effort.

“I think we learned a lot as we went along and there’s a strong core of lads there, they’ve good determination and character and that has shone through in the last few games. We lost out to Midleton but we felt we could have acquitted ourselves better the first night. We got a second chance against them and thankfully it worked out for us and momentum took us through the Barrs as well.”

Despite entering the final unbeaten in the championship and having impressed in their 3-12 to 0-8 semi-final victory over Carrigaline in the semi-final, Blackrock captain Shane O’Keeffe is taking nothing for granted.

“We are unbeaten but we’d a few close calls, we scraped it by a point against Douglas, we were very poor, we had a bit of luck, we shot something like 30 wides and we’ve had that problem all year.

“We beat Castlelyons at the start of the year but it was close enough, I think it was only nine points in the end. It was lashing rain and we left in some soft goals.

“It’s clear that they’ve improved a lot, they’ve beaten Midleton who were probably the favourites and they’ve beaten the Barrs who beat Na Piarsaigh in the previous round, it’s clear they’re after coming on a lot since we last played them.”