CBC Harty Cup hurlers forge new tradition

Six years ago, a decision was taken by Donal O’Mahony, then-principal Larry Jordan, and others, to enter CBC in the Munster Senior B Hurling Championship for the 2014/15 season.

The famed rugby institution had been fielding hurling teams at lower age-grades in the years prior, and with some success, but 2014 was the first time in decades that they put forward a senior team in Munster.

In a sign of what would later materialise, they ended up making the final before fallingtwo points short of St Joseph’s Secondary School, Tulla.

Encouraged, however, by their success in reaching the decider at the first attempt, CBC stepped up to Harty Cup level the following autumn. And in the five seasons they’ve sat at the top table, they never failed to make the knockout stages. Beaten quarter-finalists in 2016 and 2017, CBC were in the last four in 2018, while this year and last, they’ve made it to the concluding afternoon.

For the Leaving Cert students on the side who will contest tomorrow’s decider against St Flannan’s, they began their journey at CBC in September of 2014, exactly the same time as the school’s step up into the senior sphere.

“Any student t in the school right now, it is the norm to be going along to Harty Cup games, the same as seeing the school competing in the latter stages of the Munster Senior and Junior Cup,” says senior hurling joint-coach Traolach Martin.

For the guys who are now in fourth and fifth year, they have been exposed to Harty Cup action since they started here. So long as they’ve been in this school, they’ve seen the Harty team making quarters, semis, and finals.

“This is the norm for them. They see 10 years ago as a different world.

“But if you take a step back and look at what has been, six years ago the school was in Munster Senior B, and seven years ago the school didn’t have a senior team in Munster competitions.

“To be in two Harty finals, regardless of what happens on Saturday, is an amazing achievement.”