Sarsfields skipper passes the test
“I was going well then, this time, I think they had no option but to put me up,” laughs the Piercetown native.
One of the first questions asked of the adopted Sars hurler on that occasion was if he ever feels conscious of taking a Glanmire native’s place.
Having made his Cork championship debut the previous summer, there was a sense that Quigley was still being knitted into the Sars set-up.
Three years on and he’s now part of the furniture, manager Pat Ryan handing him the role of captain last February.
“It was a very easy answer when Pat rang and offered me the gig. Obviously, I am not from the club and haven’t grown up here so it is extra special that they have asked me to take up this role.”
Son of legendary Wexford hurler John, Eoin hit three points from centre-forward in the Model County’s successful annexation of the Leinster crown back in 2004. He was a permanent fixture in the Wexford set-up until his retirement from the inter-county scene in January of last year. By this juncture he had switched club allegiances from his native St Martin’s to Sars, having won a Wexford senior medal with the former in 2008.
Marrying a Cork girl and working as a pharmaceutical rep covering Cork, Kerry and Limerick, the two-and-a-half hour drive back to the south east wore away at him, so he joined Sars.
He’s since picked up two Cork hurling SHC medals and is hoping collect a third as captain.
“This group of players I would be very fond of. I have a lot of good friends here. When you are put as captain of the team, you ask yourself, ‘what kind of a bunch of lads have I with me’ and the answer is that I couldn’t pick a better bunch. It is a very easy role to captain these lads. You don’t have to pull rank on anyone. They all train as hard as each other. They are a dedicated and committed group.” Strange, though, to lead a group you weren’t familiar with when they were starting out on this present journey back in 2008.
“It is a bit strange and I certainly didn’t see it coming. Maybe it is a good thing from my perspective, it shows what they think of me down here. They have accepted me, even if you’ll never be a Cork man!
“I have trained hard since 2011. I have given the club as much as I can. When I was with Wexford, I was still getting down here to train as much as I could, going harder than a lot of people a lot of the time.
“Maybe they looked at that and thought he deserves a shot at it. I don’t have too many years left so maybe they thought it is now or never for him.” With St Martin’s involved in the penultimate round of the Wexford senior hurling championship on Sunday, the club has already qualified for the football decider, Quigley doesn’t envisage many of his old teammates making the trip to Pairc Ui Rinn tomorrow. Sure, his sister isn’t even travelling.
“Her husband is involved in a Wexford semi-final. Her blood is being tested so she is going to have to go with the husband. Diarmuid Lyng was on the team with me in St Martin’s. He is not hurling at the moment so he will probably come down to it. I will have a lot of family at it. There will be plenty of support for me if, please God, I can get up those steps and lift the Cup.” How does pulling on the blue, black and white compare to the maroon and white shirt he grew up in, or even the purple and gold that he idolised.
“The Sars shirt means as much to me as it does the rest of the lads, but in different ways. They have grown up through the club. What the club has given them has been fantastic. But on my side, what the club has given me since I came to Glanmire has been huge. I don’t think I would have settled as well into Cork were it not for what they have done for me. I had a cruciate injury coming down here. They opened up the gym for me and told me to head away in and use it. Small things like that make a big difference. Once you get in and get to know the boys, they are a great bunch. They have made it very easy for me.”
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