Veteran Mervyn the man for all seasons

IN almost every breakthrough team, regardless of the sport, there’s one guy who’s been there through the years, battling away.

He’s the talented player who has always stood out as the years inexorably passed and that summit remained as distant as ever, but he kept going. And then finally, almost on his last legs, the pinnacle. The triumph.

Charleville’s mercurial wing-forward Mervyn Gammell fulfils that role. Since his debut in 1993 he has won five North Cork titles but failed to add the big one, the county title, falling at the final hurdle in both 2001 and 2007.

This year, however, in his 19th season aged 35 he achieved glory.

“It’s brilliant, a fabulous feeling, a great buzz around the town,” he said.

“It would be great now to have one year at intermediate next year but I don’t know if I’ll be there. Those youngsters coming through, really talented. I look around me on the field, in every direction, and see fellas half my age. Some people reckon I get a nose-bleed now if I have to go back past the 65!”

Oh, he’ll be there. According to team manager TJ Crowley, Mervyn is hurling better than ever. Team captain Daniel O’Flynn is the player he and all the other youngsters on this team grew up admiring and is still very much the main man.

Still, it was a strange summit when it was finally scaled. First, there was the surprise – “All the frustrating years we’ve had, I never thought this would be the year. Back in 2001 we had a very strong team and we had a great chance” — seven points up at half-time against Courcey Rovers and to lose, that one was a killer blow. “We thought we’d be back very quickly but it took another six years, 2007, and we lost again. Some feeling now though, to have finally done it.”

Then there was the manner. Due to the farcical nature of the GAA fixtures calendar to facilitate perhaps just one player, and even then perhaps in a different code, Charleville played two rounds of the county championship then a final and replay, before playing their own regional North Cork final.

They won that county final replay, against a really good Mayfield side but had to put that county title on the line against Kildorrery in that North Cork final.

“In all the years I’ve been on this team — and I get a fair ribbing about being the oldest player on the starting 15 — I can honestly say, I’ve never played in a match with that much pressure, and that was very evident in the way we played in the first 20/25 minutes. Our goalkeeper [Cyrian Curtin] made a cracking save and kept us in it, and they had a share of wides, but gradually we began to work our way into the match and once we did, there was going to be only one winner.”

“Afterwards, it was the best feeling in my life but if nothing else comes out of that, something like this should never be allowed happen again, no other team should have to go through what we went through, because that was chronic, pure torture.

“There’s so much wrong with the way the GAA is run at club level, especially at junior and intermediate level, but that would have been the greatest injustice of all, if we’d lost that match.”

It wasn’t just Mervyn himself enjoying the relief of Charleville finally winning that county title, however. In Cavanagh’s Ford and Hyundai Main Dealers, where Mervyn has his own valet service, Martin Condon is the main man. For Martin, like so many others, for the whole town and its environs, this has been a special year.

“I only have to look at Martin here, he’s been an outstanding clubman all his life, our main sponsor for so long as well — for the likes of that generation who have spent so many years waiting, who have put so much into this club for so many years, for those people especially it’s huge.

“For the likes of Mixie O’Toole who passed away during the year, never got to see us winning the county. I can remember meeting Mixie at matches, you wouldn’t know how he got there or how he was going to get home, but he was always there. He was a massive Charleville man. He followed us in all sports but he had a special fondness for hurling, that was his great love.

“Michael Kearney [club President, passed away this week aged 98] saw it, and for those who are still with us, I think it gave them an even bigger thrill than it gave the players themselves.”

Tomorrow it continues, a Munster final against Limerick champions Cappamore, a new summit.

“We’ll probably be favourites. But that’s more to do with the record of Cork teams in this competition than with either Charleville or Cappamore. But Blackrock [Kilfinane/Ardpatrick] won the junior All-Ireland a couple of years ago and beat the Cork champions along the way so Limerick teams have a good recent record.

“We know their reputation, we know their history, we know they’ll fancy their chances, but in saying all that, we have to fancy ourselves as well. It’s 50/50, could come down to conditions, but we’re confident in our own abilities. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it going!”