Crowley: It was a long haul to top

Johnny Crowley was being mentioned a lot in recent weeks, having been the central figure in the last team to outwit a Galway tactical innovation in an All-Ireland hurling final.

That was in 1986, but Crowley came to attention in Cork a lot earlier than that.

He starred on the Rebels’ three-in-a-row side, and locally he anchored the Bishopstown hurling team from the mid-seventies on as they made the slow climb through the grades.

“Back then we were a junior team, and it was a difficult grade to get out of. We contested a city junior final in the mid-seventies and we had good players — the likes of Denis O’Brien, Eddie Murphy — and maybe we didn’t do as well as we could have. Having said that, it was hugely different then. There’s no comparison between the senior grades then and now and it was hugely difficult to get out of the junior grade, winning a junior county title was a huge achievement for any club.”

The blunt question is one Crowley asks and answers.

“Did we ever think we’d make a county senior final ourselves? ‘No’ is the simple answer.

“We had some good players but we wouldn’t have had the underage structure that the lads have in place now in the club.

“We had a good team spirit and so on, but we probably were starting from a place a bit further back — certainly at underage level we would have been playing U15B, U16B, rather than the A grade, so you were at a slight disadvantage. Then the Seandun run happened, though, and there was a bit of an impetus came into the club as a result.”

The city divisional side, steered by Justin McCarthy, made an unlikely run to the county semi-final in 1975. Crowley said it made a difference to the ‘Town, though as he points out, it was a rising tide that lifted a few other boats.

“We would have had four or five on that Seandun team but we still found it hard to get out of junior, which was probably more like an intermediate grade at the time. We wouldn’t have been alone in that, there were plenty of other clubs trying to get up the ladder which was what made it difficult to do, obviously, but there’s great credit due to the people who kept it going at that time in Bishopstown.”

This despite a constituency far bigger than most other clubs. A few weeks ago Bishopstown football coach Brian Cuthbert pointed to the high number of rented houses in the area, occupied by students or medical staff from CUMH.

Crowley refines it further: “Bishopstown is a place where a lot of people lived when they moved to Cork first, a lot of people from west Cork and Kerry in particular who mightn’t have been hurling people, particularly. I suppose that was a factor in the football team being stronger for a long time because that was the game for a lot of the people who moved into the area. That’s not to say we didn’t get good hurling people moving in as well, but while people probably think we have a huge pick, a lot of those houses have students in them or nurses — there’s a lot of renting in the area which means you don’t get a lot of players out of those houses.”

Crowley sees Bishopstown’s appearance in tomorrow’s senior final as good for hurling in the city.

“It’s very important. It was also very important that Blackrock didn’t get relegated, that’s very important for the city.

“That’s nothing against Cloyne, they’re a fine club, but looking at the hard work being done in Blackrock and the good young players they have coming through, you’d be hopeful for city hurling.

“Douglas are coming again — they were a club we had fierce battles with at junior level years ago when we were both trying to break through — while the Barr’s are knocking on the door as well.

“It’s very important that hurling flourishes in the city, that’s important for Cork and important for hurling.

“There might be more to be done in that regard, too, but that’s probably a discussion to be had another time.”

As a Cork senior hurling selector with Jimmy Barry-Murphy it’s not surprising that Crowley sees a bigger picture.

However, for all that . . .

“The county responsibilities are being put to one side on Sunday,” said Crowley, whose son Denis is on the selection.

“I want them to do well, obviously, but I don’t have any input per se. There’s great credit due to Peter O’Driscoll, Conor O’Neill, Colm Coffey, Timmy Crowley, they’re the guys who have done it, along with the fitness regime Brian Cuthbert brought in at the start of the year.