Harnedy admits championship pace left him ‘breathless’

Cork’s newest hurling star, Seamus Harnedy, said the step-up in pace to Munster championship left him “absolutely breathless” in Limerick on Sunday.

However the Cork debutant recovered to pick up the man of the match award in an against-the-odds Rebel win over Clare.

“After 15 minutes, you were absolutely breathless. You’re just hoping your second wind will kick in. Thank God the training paid off and we could match them on the day.”

Harnedy was happy with the prospect of another day out.

“We haven’t won much at underage — we haven’t won anything for years, so we were only delighted to have a go at a Munster semi-final. We relished the opportunity and thank God we took it, and now we have a Munster final to look forward to. The bottom line though is we’ve had heartbreaks over the years. We thought we’d win U21 titles but ended up with no silverware. We’ll go back training on Tuesday with all guns blazing for three weeks’ time and hopefully bring back some silverware to Cork.”

The east Cork man was keen to repay the faith of the management team. “They put their necks on the line for me,” he said. “There was a lot of lads in the pecking order — Jamie Coughlan came on and did well, Cathal Naughton is there, a lot of us are striving for places. I was just delighted I was able to come on and prove my selection was right. But there are ups and downs, the next day it could go the other way, though hopefully it’ll go well.”

The breeding is there, of course.

“My mother Kathy has six All-Ireland medals, I’ve a bit of catching up to do there — I don’t know if I’ll get there to be honest — as all I’ve to show is two Fitzgibbons and a freshers (medal).

“It’s nice to win a game and get the opportunity to win a medal. I get a bit of slagging off the college lads that I’m not as good as the mother.

“She was centre-back for Cork for a few years. She’s from Killeagh and my father Sean is from Waterford. He had an appearance or two for Waterford, but he wouldn’t be as distinguished as the mother. They met halfway.”

The 22-year-old sees Clare bouncing back in this year’s championship: “They had beaten us three times already. We’d such substantial injuries. Paudie O’Sullivan, Pa Cronin got pneumonia, Lorcan McLoughlin popped his shoulder. They were three pivotal players in the league.

“I know the league didn’t go as well as we wanted but everything was geared towards the championship. We put in a good performance and it was nice to get over Clare in the end. They’d beaten us three times but we know Clare are going to be back again. They’re a fit and young team, no doubt they’ll go a long way in the qualifiers.”

Harnedy didn’t forget one of his mentors in his hour of triumph, either.

“Paul O’Connor in fairness was one of the lads that gave me my original breakthrough with the Fitzgibbon team, God rest his soul. He gave me a chance and thankfully from there, things fell into place. Paul, along with Paddy Crowley and the Kingstons, put a lot into us and thank God we were able to pay something back today. But as I keep emphasising lads, we’ve nothing won yet.

“Hopefully in three weeks time, we’ll do that.”