Patrick Horgan: We won’t be going away easily

This was a result for Cork hurling to revel in, as much as it was for Glen Rovers.

We all know the facts and figures by this stage. Between Newtownshandrum’s 2009 Munster final win and Sunday’s semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds, there had been 27 games in the Munster Club SHC. Not one of them had ended in victory for a Cork team.

Take even 2016 in isolation. The Cork senior, U21, minor and intermediate teams each failed to make their respective provincial decider. The seniors, U21’s and intermediates fell at the opening hurdle in Munster, while the minors tripped up at the semi-final juncture. From four teams, only one Munster championship win was recorded.

So while it may have been 40 years since the Glen were last involved on the concluding Sunday of the provincial championship, it’s fair to argue Cork, more so than the northside city club, needed Sunday’s positive result.

Cork hurling, 11 and a half months into the 2016 season, finally has a Munster final to look forward to. Patrick Horgan, the contributor of eight points for the winners, acknowledged this win would reverberate far beyond the confines of Blackpool.

“It’s brilliant,” he said, “when was the last Cork team that won outside Cork? It’s a big thing for us, to show we’re not just Cork standard down low, winning bad counties in Cork. We’re not.

“We were up against a serious team there. There was Na Piarsaigh and Kilmallock in Limerick. Patrickswell beat them so what can we do? We’re only beating what’s there. They’re a really good side so we’re obviously a good side as well. We’ll see where it gets us.”

Can the exploits of a single club team lift a county so desperately in need of lifting?

“What we’ve shown, whatever about last year but especially this year, is that with hard work and a bit of determination, it doesn’t matter who you’re up against or who’s on the other team. If 15 of your players are thinking on the same wavelength and they all want the same thing, you can achieve things if you want.”

With the teams level at 0-13 apiece in the 58th minute, Horgan emerged from a ruck of four Patrickswell players with the sliotar in the left hand. The foul came and he slotted the resulting free to nudge the Cork champions in front for the first time. A pivotal moment.

“I’m not sure [how I came out of that], but a lot of our fellas were doing that most of the day, they were coming out with a lot of ball there in the second-half.

“Our backs, I can’t say enough about them. They’ve been our strongest part for the last two years. They showed it again on Sunday. We keep chipping away above and the backs do their job, and we’re alright.”

Behind that defence was an inspired Cathal Hickey, the goalkeeper denying Thomas O’Brien and Seanie O’Brien with two excellent saves in the 31st and 54th minute.

“Cathal’s been doing it for two, three, four years now with us. Whenever he’s asked to get us out of a hole, he produces it. One on one there [in the 54th minute], he produced a great save and it ended up being a wide ball. Win-win for us.”

Horgan continued: “In the first-half, we weren’t good. But once we were in the game with ten minutes to go, we’ve seen it all year that we’re a good side and we won’t be going away too easily.

“We’ve been just hanging in there and we kick on. I don’t know what it is but this team just has it and we showed it there again in the semi-final.

“Last year, we were cold going into the game [against Ballygunner]. We played with a strong wind and had a lot of wides in the first-half. The emotion of winning the first county in so long got the better of us as well.

“This time round we were more determined to get a result and you saw out there that we ground it out.”