Manager Fergal Ryan knows many bumps in Rockies’ road to senior success

Of the seven teams remaining in the Cork hurling championship, none come to the table with as much underage success as Blackrock

Sat, 12 Sep, 2020 - 00:00

Eoghan Cormican

Of the seven teams remaining in the Cork hurling championship, none come to the table with as much underage success as Blackrock.

Yes, Sars did win two county U21 titles in recent years, as well as a minor championship back in 2014, but even this impressive haul pales in comparison to the stack of underage medals weighing down the pockets of the current Rockies group.

Four Cork minor hurling championships were won between 2009 and 2013, this quartet of final triumphs giving rise to three U21 victories in 2012, ‘14, and ‘15.

Seven seasons, seven pieces of silverware.

Of course, such a spread of underage success - delivered by players who are now in their mid-to-late twenties - has lent itself to an expectation from both inside the club and those on the outside looking in that senior glory will, sooner or later, follow suit.

It is five years since the last of those county U21 final wins, a team managed by current senior boss Fergal Ryan, and while the Rockies reached the senior decider in 2017 and the penultimate round in 2018, the translation of underage dominance into a first county senior title since 2002 has not yet materialised.

Ryan, who masterminded a couple of the minor victories, as well as the U21 wins, is acutely aware that the widely held belief that senior success should follow underage riches is, in reality, anything but straightforward.

“The determination to do well at senior is always there, irrespective of what has been achieved at underage. But when you win minors and U21s, there is an expectation as well. To date, we haven't [got that county senior].

“But looking back at those underage winning teams, there are very few players that have come through and are now playing senior. There are about four to five from any particular year. I'd say that is the most we have got through, so there is a big fall-off," remarks the former Cork hurler.

I presume that's similar in lots of other clubs, especially those with big numbers, the likes of ourselves, other city teams, and Sars, that there might be a high fall-off from underage winning teams.

“I wouldn't say [four or five] is an acceptable number, but it is just the way things are. Once lads get out of minor, there are a lot of other commitments that take precedence, such as college, joining the workforce, or they could be involved in other sports. Some are still playing hurling, they're just not playing senior.

Alan Connolly of Blackrock in action against Erin's Own

“You'd love to keep more on board, but it is just not the reality, and if you can get an extra couple [staying on] by doing different things, I don't have the silver bullet to understand or know what those different things are. But you try to keep as much as you can involved.”

The relative youth of the Rockies team which reached the 2017 county final against Imokilly is illustrated in the fact that the player who led them out onto the Páirc Uí Chaoimh sod that afternoon, Stephen Murphy, was but 23 years of age.

Ryan says it was an experience he “wouldn’t swap for anything”.

“We were young. Playing a couple of years at senior definitely benefits when lads are getting a bit more mature. I think they are getting a little bit more understanding too. They are understanding what it takes to be a senior hurler and what commitment it needs.”

2019 was most definitely a setback to their upward curve of the previous years, Newtownshandrum stunning them in Round 3. The city side rectified that result when overcoming the North Cork men by 12 points last month, one of three wins they engineered en route to topping Group B.

Douglas are up next in tomorrow’s quarter-final and Ryan - who along with Brian Twomey this week launched Treo, a new business researching the food service and hospitality market and providing key market trends - is hopeful his charges can carry their group form into the knockout stages.

“There have been some very pleasing aspects to our performances to date, and some stuff we need to work on. The Newtown game was a rounded performance in that we kept playing well for most of it.

“With regard to Douglas, they have some big names in their team, some marquee forwards. We will be trying to curtail them. We have some forwards that can do damage as well. It will be a battle in the middle third to see who stops the supply of ball going into the respective forward lines.

The team that comes out on top there will set themselves up very well from the point of view of winning the game.