Barrett: Sunday is like another county final for us

THEY’LL don their usual blue and gold jerseys on their backs, but, according to selector and former player Seanie Barrett, when the hurlers of Carrigtwohill take to the field take on Crusheen, they’ll be wearing red and white on their sleeves conscious of the fact they are also carrying the hopes of Cork.

“Winning the Cork senior title was a massive achievement for Carrigtwohill,” said Barrett, who himself won two Cork senior championships with the division, Imokilly, back in the ‘90s.

“But next Sunday is like another county final for us again, that’s the way we have to treat it. Newtown are the only Cork club team since Midleton in 1987/88 to have gone on and won an All-Ireland — in fact they’re also the only Cork club to have won in Munster since then. We’re very conscious of that, we’ll be putting our best foot forward. The county isn’t enough for us, we want to go on and do a lot better.”

Additional motivation for Carrig there then, but the problem is Clare champions Crusheen are on a similar kind of mission. From the high of the ‘90s, when they dominated the Munster club championship and won six titles in succession with three different clubs, Clare haven’t won a Munster since Sixmilebridge in 2001. In recent years their record has been particularly abysmal, failing to even win a game more often than not.

“True,” said Barrett, “but all I know is that the team we’re playing on Sunday, Crusheen, have just put two counties back-to-back, and that’s a serious achievement in any hurling county. They were beaten in the first round in Munster last year by Kilmallock and they were very disappointed with that.

“Their first comment after winning the county a few weeks ago was that this year they were determined to make up for that disappointment — that shows how seriously they’re taking this.’’

Scoring against what is a superb Crusheen defence is a major challenge for any team at any time, but given that we’re now well into November and the consequent heavy conditions, the challenge becomes more difficult again. With Niall McCarthy leading the attack, however, Carrig will not be lacking for inspiration. “Hopefully not, we’re hoping we’ll get the same intensity and workrate we got from all the lads in the last three or four matches in Cork. We’ll have to, if we’re to progress any further in this championship.”

A problem for the men from east Cork, however, has been the six-week wait since winning their own county.

“The celebrations were over after a few days. That was it. Back to business on the Wednesday, so if we’re beaten on Sunday it won’t be down to over-celebrating. We’ll just be beaten by a better team, no excuses.

“But we have been waiting too long. Crusheen were able to celebrate for a week then have two weeks to prepare. It’s been a while since we had a hard game, we’re trying to build back up again now. Preparations in the last few weeks have gone reasonably well, we haven’t eased off or anything like that; we’ll be going all out to do the best we can, giving it everything we have.”