Cuthbert:Town won't be lacking in effort

It’s every GAA club’s dream: a shot at senior success in hurling and football.

Organising that is a challenge, though. Ask Brian Cuthbert, Bishopstown football manager. The city club’s hurlers are in the county senior final, and today their footballers have a fourth-round appointment with Clonakilty.

The only trouble is they’ve had five hurling matches since their last football outing. Good thing only a couple of dual players are involved.

“There’s probably a misconception out there about the number of dual players we have,” says Cuthbert. “People think that there are a few lads on both panels, but we have 18 players on both hurling and football panels. That’s a massive amount of players to manage, but the way we’re looking at it, we’re taking it that the club is on the crest of a wave created by the hurlers reaching the county final, and we’re hoping that that’ll be enough.

“Maybe it won’t be, but all we can do is our best with the cards we’ve been dealt. I’d say there’s a lot of clubs would want the same level of activity due to the success in both codes. In that sense it’s a good headache to have.”

In selling the club to players and parents it’s also welcome. Bishopstown is a large suburb but that doesn’t mean the demographics favour the local club, says Cuthbert.

“Bishopstown is an area with a large population, but a lot of the houses in the area are full of students from UCC and CIT renting. They’re not going to be playing for us. We also have other codes right on our doorstep that we compete with.

“So, in that sense, any time we have the club as the central focus of the community, we’ll take it. In terms of the football game, we have the match this weekend against Clon and the players are mature enough to take that on its merits.”

Still, progressing into the autumn on both fronts helps the club’s profile. “That point is key. The club has to be able to market itself within its community, and the best marketing tool you could have is success on the field, obviously.

“We’re working very hard, as is every other club in the city, but the population issue I referred to makes it difficult for us as well, there’s no denying that. You could also argue that people have been calling for regular games for years, and now we’ve had that — it’s just they’ve come along in both hurling and football at the same time.

“The bottom line is that we just have to get on with it. We’ve been trying to manage it as best we can, but it’s true to say it’s new territory for us. We’ve never had to deal with this before and, if it happened again, we may take lessons from this year in order to manage it better. But we’re doing the best we can.

“We’re not going down to Newcestown in hope, we’re going down to do our best and to go for it, absolutely. Whatever the result, we won’t lack for effort from the players. They’re giving their heart and soul to the club and they’re working very hard.”

Bishopstown have injury concerns — Paul O’Connor has a broken hand and won’t figure this weekend, while Denis Crowley has been injured for the last six or seven weeks and only came on late in the hurling game last weekend.

“We’ve had a few injuries, but that’s partly down to the length of the season,” says Cuthbert.

“Our biggest problem, though, has been things are half in the lap of the gods in terms of preparation.

“We haven’t played (football) for so long that we’ve had five hurling championship matches since we last played a senior football championship game. Having so many players crossing over has made it difficult, but we’re looking forward to the weekend.”