Cork Premier SFC final: Castlehaven not ruling out injury scare Brian Hurley

Brian Hurley of Castlehaven in action against Colm Scully of St Finbarr's during the Cork County Premier SFC semi-final match late last year. Picutre: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Castlehaven have not shut the door on the prospect of injured Brian Hurley playing some part in Sunday’s Cork senior football final.

The Cork forward damaged his hamstring at the end of Castlehaven’s county league final win over Newmarket on August 1 and has not trained with the team since.

Castlehaven manager James McCarthy told the Irish Examiner he can’t see Hurley playing on Sunday but for a “miracle”.

He did not, however, definitively rule out the 29-year-old who he said is likely to tog.

“We are waiting on the physio, but I can’t see him playing,” said McCarthy.

“He was given eight weeks to be back, we are only into the fourth week now.”

McCarthy said there was a huge reluctance to throw an injured player into Sunday’s delayed 2020 county final given the 2021 championship — which includes a minimum of three group games — throws-in the weekend following.

“We just want to get him back on the pitch again, well and healthy. This year’s county championship is down on top of us so we are going to have a long year irrespective of how Sunday goes. We want to win Sunday, but we can’t be putting on injured players. You can’t be doing that to him. You have to think of the long-term view.”

Hurley has been plagued by hamstring troubles in recent years, with the timing of this latest setback particularly misfortunate given the 10 months he and his teammates have been waiting to play this delayed county final which was initially scheduled for the second weekend of October last year.

Adding to the collective frustration in Castlehaven is the form Hurley was enjoying prior to his August 1 injury. He was Cork’s most threatening forward on the afternoon of the county’s Munster final defeat to Kerry on July 25, finishing with 1-3 beside his hame. And he had landed exactly double that tally when his hamstring went a week later in the closing stages of the club’s League final victory over Newmarket.

“Very unfortunate for Brian and he was going so well, as well. He was after scoring 2-6 in that League game, which was his first game back with us.”

Whereas Hurley, along with fellow Cork senior panellists Michael Hurley and Mark Collins, returned to the Castlehaven fold from the end of July, the Cahalane brothers — Damien and Conor — only rejoined the set-up midweek following the conclusion of the inter-county hurling season. Younger brother Jack wasn’t long in the door before them given his busy inter-county summer ran until Wednesday of last week when he picked up a second All-Ireland U20 hurling medal in less than six weeks.

McCarthy said the Cahalane brothers made a seamless return earlier this week.

“In an ideal world, we’d love to have them all year round, have our best players all year round, and be able to set up and coach and have a gameplan, but these are quality players and they fit back in like a glove straightaway.

“They know what is wanted of them and their attitude is second to none. Coming back in to us, they are just buzzing. It didn’t go the way they wanted to on All-Ireland hurling final day, but you wouldn’t see that when they came into us earlier this week.”

The Haven manager dished out similar praise to the rest of his panel for their application during the long, long wait to bring the curtain down on their 2020 campaign.

Sunday represents the West Cork club’s first involvement on county final day since 2015, which they lost to this weekend’s opponents after a replay, with the Haven last clasping their hands onto the Andy Scannell Cup in 2013.

“The players have been unbelievably well disciplined. When there was total lockdown, there was no social life and so only for the GAA they had nothing to aim for.

“When places started to open up, it would be easy to say, we need a blowout or we need to go here or go there, but their discipline has been outstanding. They have given it everything. They are looking forward to Sunday. They see this as a once-off opportunity, it is a bonus at this stage.

“We hopefully have got our preparation right, but we won’t know that until Sunday. I think their fitness won’t be questioned anyway. Cork ran a good League for clubs and we got good value out of that. If there wasn’t a League during the summer, we’d have run out of challenge games.

“The fitness side of things and the skill side of things, I think we are in good shape. Sunday will tell all.”