McLoughlin’s final Fitzgibbon fling

For Lorcan McLoughlin, the time has come to sip drinks in the last chance saloon. The Cork senior hurler has been battling desperately over the past three years to land the Fitzgibbon Cup medal he craves.

This year’s competition is his final attempt and heading into this afternoon’s semi-final showdown with Limerick IT, the Cork IT captain is looking to make it count.

“I’d love to keep playing in this competition for a few more years but this is probably it for me really,” he said. “You have to move on at some stage. We fell short trying to reach the weekend two years ago and then lost the semi-final last year. It’s fantastic to be involved again, particularly given the weekend is on in Cork and that it’s the centenary year of the Fitzgibbon. But the standard is going to be seriously high. LIT are one team that I’ve never faced in the Fitzgibbon but you look at all the big names they have and it shows the level we need to get to if we’re going to win.”

McLoughlin will be a key protagonist in the CIT line-up but for Daniel Kearney, whose UCC team-mates face UL in the second of today’s semi-finals, his role is restricted to the sideline. When challenging for possession in the early stages of UCC’s opening group tie against DCU last month, Kearney shipped a knock that left him nursing a broken bone in his thumb. With the Fitzgibbon Cup just cranking into action and having secured a call-up to Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s Cork senior hurling panel, the timing was unfortunate.

“You’ve done all the hard training in December and January, and then get a knock early in the first Fitz game. I was delighted to get calledinto the Cork squad as well and you’re hoping to do your best to impress but then you end up on the sideline. “Look, injuries happen to everyone, you just have to get on with it. I’ve the cast off next week and I’m hoping to be back by mid-March. I might not be playing but I’m still looking forward to the weekend and I’ve been at all UCC’s matches since.”

For CIT it has been a unique season as the end of their county senior hurling championship run last October merged with the Fitzgibbon Cup preparations. That defeat toCarrigtwohill in the Cork showpiece was difficult to absorb but they immersed themselves quickly in hurling again.

“We didn’t really have much time to dwell on it,” recalled McLoughlin.

“It’s not a loss you’d forget about but having other games to focus on made it a bit easier. I think lads were just happy to get back playing in the Higher Education League within a few weeks. It’s a different team as well. We’ve guys like PaudieO’Sullivan involved now, who are quality hurlers and who put in a serious amount of effort.

“I’m not sure if we’ve been overly impressive to date in the Fitzgibbon but we’ve managed to keep on winning. We were poor in the first half against WIT but got to grips with them and finished off the game in the second half. “That took the pressure off us playing away to UCD where we did well and then having home advantage in the quarter-final against NUIG was a big help.”

After coming off injured early in that DCU match, Kearney watched his team-mates cruise to a runawayvictory with 29 points to spare. Their subsequent tussles with GMIT and UCD were markedly different affairs.

“It’s always a battle up in Galway and the conditions were very difficult against GMIT. But the lads showed really good character to just dig out the win. We knew UCD were a serious outfit coming down last week for the quarter-final, especially when they’d fellas like Noel McGrath and Liam Rushe involved.

“But we pulled away in the second-half and as Paul O’Connor always says, just make sure you get to the weekend and give yourself a chance. It’s a huge occasion for us hosting it and I think there’ll be a great atmosphere given that the two Cork colleges and two Limerick colleges are involved.”