Ronan Dwane: Every win along the way helps

Irrespective of the outcome in this evening’s All-Ireland intermediate hurling decider, Cork GAA faces a long winter of discontent.

That particularly awful weekend in Thurles a fortnight ago brought the curtain down on one of the worst summers in recent history for the Rebel County – not since 2001 were both the Cork senior hurling and football teams eliminated from the championship before the end of July.

Indeed, not since 1962 has a single Cork team in either code or age-group failed to reach an All-Ireland semi-final or final.

Intermediate manager Ronan Dwane accepts that silverware at the Gaelic Grounds won’t do much to heal the wounds of a regressive 2015, but points out that “everything helps”.

Take the 2010 All-Ireland winning football squad.

Eleven of the Cork panel that togged out that September afternoon against Down had an All-Ireland junior medal in their back pocket, included in this group were starters Noel O’Leary, Alan Quirke, Alan O’Connor, Donnacha O’Connor and Paudie Kissane, while Aidan Walsh and Ciarán Sheehan picked up Munster junior medals before being drafted into the senior set-up.

Every medal, irrespective of the grade, is a progressive step towards building a successful senior team, Dwane argues.

“In the grand scheme of things, I know an intermediate All-Ireland is not a senior, U21 or minor All-Ireland. Everything helps, though,” he asserts.

“There is a long road to go to get back up to the top table. We can all help on that road. Every little victory along the way will help.

“Every little bit of exposure you can get for any player along the way is great. You only need look back at the 2010 football team to see how many of them had won junior medals in the previous years.

“Look at the Cork senior hurling team at present, lads on that team have come from intermediate. Every medal is a building block along the road.

“We all have a lot of work to do in Cork. There is a realisation now that has to be done, and is starting to be done.” Mind you, of all the Cork teams to step inside the whitewash in 2015, least was probably expected of Dwane’s group. The two-time All-Ireland- winning intermediate hurler (1997 and 2001) delivered All-Ireland glory last summer and so was forced to build a completely new side this year — Castlemartyr’s Barra Ó Tuama the sole survivor having missed the final win over Wexford.

“An All-Ireland final wasn’t on our radar at the start of the year. You were just concentrating on getting a team together and being competitive for the first game against Waterford.

“As it went along, fellas were putting in a huge effort and there was still a lot of good quality players there. We got the win over Waterford and pushed on from there.” The final roadblock, however, is a difficult one.

“Galway have three of the 26 that togged against Cork in the senior quarter-final. They are picking from 24-34 in terms of the best hurlers in Galway. Anthony Cunningham is managing them as well so that all helps to keep the whole thing streamlined.

They are basically training for an All-Ireland senior semi-final in the build-up to this game so it’s going to be very tough.”