Tomás Mulcahy: ‘It’s important for Cork hurling to have a good game tomorrow’

The biggest day in the Cork GAA calendar retains its lustre. The crowds may not be as big, and the venue is not at the end of that long leafy stroll down the Marina, but the prize remains the same.

Tomorrow Glen Rovers and Erin’s Own battle it out for the Seán Óg Murphy Cup: two clubs which show the full spectrum of those competing for the prize. The Glen, one of the original big three along with St Finbarr’s and Blackrock, and Erin’s Own, the newer arrivals on the honours list.

City club and country outfit. Incumbent champions and feisty challengers.

Tomás Mulcahy of Glen Rovers can reach back over 40 years to his first county finals, in the old Athletic Grounds which yielded to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“I can remember the Glen winning in 1976, the year the Pairc opened, and Patsy Harte being brought back through Blackpool in an open-topped car - maybe they borrowed it from Jack Lynch - and people coming out of the houses, the bonfires, going back to the old club.

“After that we had our lean years and we didn’t see too many bonfires for a long time. But county final day is special anyway, I’d say most GAA people would go to it even if their own club isn’t involved. And for players, it’s the next-best thing to playing for the county, many of them would cherish a county medal above everything else.

“If you do well for your club it’s an obvious step to county recognition.

“It’s the day that everyone in a club is working towards, senior county final day. It’s great to have success at other levels but if you’re a senior club it’s all about senior success, senior counties.”

Mulcahy captained the Glen to end their famine in 1989, but a strong memory of the era comes from the previous year: “Yeah, the year before, getting hammered by the Barr’s in the county final, I was captain and I remember standing in the tunnel under the stand afterwards crying and wondering if we’d ever get the chance again. Donie O’Donovan was in charge and we went back early to prepare for ’89, we got a bit of luck along the way and made it back to the county final.

“I was captain again but I’d been dropped by Cork early in 1989 and told to play away with my club. So ‘89 was special, it was a stepping-stone to a lot of things for me, but it was very important for us to break the hoodoo since 1976.

“It’s important for a club to have success - from every perspective. We had great players — Kieran McGuckian, Johnny Buckley, the Fitzgibbons all played for Cork, but it was great lads who’d given huge service to the club got their day of glory as well.”

For Erin’s Own the journey was different. When they made their breakthrough in 1992, Timmy Kelleher was a central figure, but he hadn’t grown up dreaming of the county senior final.

“I wouldn’t have been going down the Páirc that much, we were playing junior and intermediate — the senior county final might have been on a different planet, really. It didn’t register.

“You’d read about it, or hear about it, but it was like a World Cup final — something you’d look at without thinking you’d be involved in one.

“Our aspirations were geared to getting out of junior and intermediate for a long time.”

And going back to intermediate, maybe. The urban legend was that Erin’s Own were urged in some quarters to re-grade out of senior facing into 1992 . .

“It was brought up at the AGM, but that was about it,” Kelleher laughs.

“We won the East Cork U21 final in 1991, that was a big catalyst.

“We beat Midleton, who’d beaten us year after year, so that gave us a lift heading into 1992.

“We had good players from that U21 team coming through, but like a lot of other teams, we were hopeful of getting on a run and doing well. That was about it.”

The run might have been derailed by the Glen, of all teams. Kelleher can remember Christy Ring flying through late on in an earlier round of the 1992 championship, when Erin’s Own were just a point ahead: “He went for goal but Raymond O’Connor saved for us and we held out. The rest is history.

“No matter what you want to win you need a bit of luck, and we had it in abundance that year, to be fair.”

Their opponents, Na Piarsaigh, were well fancied: “We were massive underdogs but a lot of the players had been Cork minors, Cork U21s, the likes of Frank Horgan and Tony O’Keeffe and the Dillons, while Brian (Corcoran) was having the year of his life with the Cork seniors. We had a good blend, the sense of the village, the camaraderie was strong as well.

“Na Piarsaigh were star-studded, but our attitude was we’d go out and give it a lash. If we were beaten by a better team, so be it, but it was a day when we just clicked. We had no fear, and we gave it a lash.”

They did more than that, turning their opponents over in a huge upset.

“I just remember the sea of red and blue up in the stand, I’d say everybody alive in the parish that day was down there. People coming up and shaking hands and hugging you… it took forever to come out of the stadium that day, it was mind-blowing, in fairness.”

And tomorrow?

“It’s 2007 since we were there last and the team’s changed a lot — only Kieran Murphy and Shane Murphy are involved since then.

“If players can handle the pressure, fantastic, but it’s the Glen’s third final on the trot, so they’re seasoned. It’s a matter of our lads handling it, but our management team are on top of that.”

For Tomás Mulcahy, the Glen’s experience may be significant.

“It’s a massive achievement for the club to make three counties in a row, it’s a great incentive for the lads to win titles back to back, which the Glen hasn’t done in 50 years. Erin’s Own might have made the county final last year so it’s no surprise they’re there. Jack Sheehan, Robbie Flynn, the Murphys — they bring an awful lot to the table.

“Do I think the Glen will win? I hope they will, but Erin’s Own will bring a freshness to it and have beaten some very good teams along the way.

“It’s important for Cork hurling to have a good game tomorrow, and I’m sure that’s what we’ll get. The crowds may have dwindled a bit but it’s a very special day still.”