Ricken has worked the oracle to put Carrig in bonus territory

As he did for the Cork U20 footballers earlier this year, Keith Ricken, now on the sideline with the Carrigtwohill hurlers, is again working the oracle.

Tomorrow afternoon at Páirc Uí Rinn, Carrigtwohill will appear in a first county semi-final since 2011. They’re pinching themselves a small bit out in the East Cork club because to be just one hour from the decider stands completely at odds with the series of defeats and setbacks endured in recent years.

It has been highlighted on these pages in recent weeks how Carrigtwohill, prior to 2019, hadn’t won a championship match since August 2015, but we feel the need to again draw attention to this turbulent spell to reinforce the low base from which Carrigtwohill have climbed to now be closing in on the club’s first county final involvement since that famous 2011 win.

In 2016, ’17, and ’18, the club came up short in the first and second round of the championship, their season ending on each occasion with a meaningless relegation play-off. This year didn’t look as if it was going to be any different. If anything, matters appeared to have further regressed when Carrigtwohill fell to the Barr’s by a staggering 24 points in the opening round. Their subsequent round two victory over Killeagh in early August brought the curtain down — at long, long last — on the club’s 1,464-day wait for a championship win. They’ve since forgotten how to lose.

Carrigtwohill selector John Horgan doesn’t need to give much thought as to how their turnaround in form and fortunes has come about.

“It is all down to Keith [Ricken], his ideas and such,” Horgan insisted.

“He is known as a football coach, but as he says himself, he’s also good at hurling! He has left his mark on us.”

This is the All-Ireland U20 winning manager’s first season coaching Carrigtwohill, part of a management team headed up by Marty McConville, and Horgan reckons the aforementioned first round game against the Barr’s came too soon for the fruits of Ricken’s labour to be seen.

“That championship game was played in April and so we had only two months of training under Keith in the locker. Whereas now, he’s had a full summer with us. He has had time to stamp his ideas on the team, he’s had a good chance to make a huge impression, which he has.”

Speaking after the 3-17 to 2-16 quarter-final win over Ballyhea, Ricken described their 2019 journey as a “remarkable transformation”.

“They had an awful start to the year,” he added, “any other crowd would have walked away from all this, but they stuck around and I have huge admiration for that.”

This is a sentiment shared by Horgan who says their three-game winning run, the most consistency a Carrigtwohill team has shown in eight years, has brought the town to life. Theirs is a nice blend of youth and experience. Aaron Walsh Barry and Liam Gosnell are two fine young students of the game, the latter probably having to shoulder a greater degree of scoring responsibility than should be the case, while the likes of Ronan Power, Pat O’Sullivan, and Tomas Hogan are survivors from the 2011 class.

“We haven’t been in a county final in eight years. Of course, everyone is getting a bit excited,” selector Horgan continued. “We didn’t expect this at all. It’s totally unexpected. But at the same time, we have worked really, really hard since we were beaten by the Barr’s in that first round. Everybody has turned up and made a big effort.

“To be where we are is a big, big bonus to us, but now that we are here, we want to get to the final. If Imokilly come through the other semi-final, whoever wins between ourselves and the Glen will represent Cork in the Munster Championship. There are carrots here in front of us that we are going after.

“It has given the club such a lift. We won the East Cork minor title two weeks ago, beating Cloyne. Our U21s are in the East Cork semi-final. The club is absolutely flying it at the minute. We’ve three teams still alive in championship come October and that is fabulous for us. A rising tide lifts all boats. We’re in a good place at the moment.

“The mood is very, very optimistic in that we didn’t expect to be this far. We are going in under the radar. The Glen will be hot favourites and that suits us fine.”