Wilderness years sweeten victory for Drom & Inch

DROM & Inch goalkeeper Damien Young said the final whistle in last Sunday’s Tipperary SHC final had brought a “pure release of energy” from the team and supporters.

It was Drom’s first county senior title, and Young said he and his clubmates were enjoying the winning feeling.

“It’s hard to believe still, we’ve been trying so hard to get over the line,” he said.

“On Sunday the final whistle brought such relief, it was a pure release of energy. It was fantastic to see so many people out on the pitch in Thurles for so long after the game and to see how emotional they all were.

“We were in relegation battles going back to the early 2000s before we made the breakthrough in 2004, when we made the county quarter-final. Everybody knows we lost the three county finals we played in since, but as Mickey Harte says, ‘you’ve just got to keep on knocking on the door’.”

Did Young and his colleagues ever feel it just wasn’t going to happen for them after those defeats? “No — in the immediate aftermath of those games of course you’d be saying, ‘will we ever win it’, but that’s only natural after a disappointing defeat.

“The difference is that we have an outstanding group of youngsters who are hugely dedicated to hurling. Once the year turned round to January, even after those county final defeats, lads got back into it. We knew we had the talent to win it, that it was just a matter of getting it right.”

Asked to isolate the turning points in this season, Young pointed to the return of Tipperary senior midfielder James Woodlock from serious injury.

“Everybody knows he got a very serious leg injury two years ago, which meant he lost out on a lot of game time with us and with Tipperary.

“He was getting back to full fitness last year but this season he was right from the start, and that was a huge help to us; it only made everybody more determined than ever to give it a right good shot.

“Then you had a huge game earlier in the championship against Burgess.”

Drom and Inch had an epic victory over Burgess in the fourth round of the championship — reduced to 14 men on the stroke of half time, they kept their noses in front until deep into injury time, but Burgess finally levelled.

“It must have been the seventh or eighth minute of injury time when we won a free about 80 yards from the Burgess goal,” said Young.

“Seamus Callanan, who was outstanding on the day, took it and put it over the bar for the win for us. That was a massive win.”

Now Drom are in unknown waters — the Munster club championship. They’ll meet up tomorrow evening for a chat to get the focus right for their encounter with Ballygunner.

“You have to enjoy the moment as well, that’s a big part of winning a title, obviously. We’re just back from visiting the local school with the cup, and that was great, seeing how happy the kids were with the trophy.

“Their [Ballygunner’s] focus is probably on doing well in the Munster club because they’ve won a good few Waterford titles. They’ve been there before.”