Damien Cahalane: Cork football, difficulty of the dual player and captain Sean O'Donoghue

DUAL STAR: Damien Cahalane of St Finbarr's at the launch of this year's AIB Camogie All-Ireland Club Championships and the AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

You could argue that he is a better footballer than a hurler but Damien Cahalane has revealed that his days of playing football for Cork are probably over.

Exclusively a hurler at inter-county level since 2014, when he lined out in both Munster senior finals for his county, Cahalane remains a terrific dual asset at club level.

He is currently preparing for an AIB Munster club SHC semi-final with St Finbarr's against Clare's Ballyea on November 20.

He was a key figure on the Cork club football scene this term too, helping Castlehaven to the county semi-finals where they were defeated by, ironically, St Finbarr's.

In an ideal world, Cork football manager John Cleary would slot Cahalane into his defence for 2023 but the player himself ruled out any return and indicated that he will probably stick with hurling for good.

"John Cleary hasn't called me yet anyway," joked Cahalane. "No, look, I haven't even thought of the likes of that. I'm kind of stuck in season 2022 still. But I would imagine at this stage that I've kind of made my bed. I've hurled for whatever number of years. I made my debut in 2012, went down the hurling route then and have loved every minute of it.

"There have been tough times but more better times than tough times. I've loved every minute of it and I'm still trying to improve as a hurler and looking forward to next year."

Cahalane said that, at this stage, he doesn't even consider the relative oddity of playing football for Castlehaven and hurling for St Finbarr's, which leaves him running up against hurling colleagues during football games like last month's county semi-final.

"We've been facilitated by both clubs and that made it easier for us," said Cahalane, who outlined the commitment required to play for both clubs. "It's about an hour and 15 minutes, or 20 minutes, from home (to Castlehaven). 

"Look, I suppose if you were in the city you are probably going to spend half an hour or 45 minutes getting through traffic anyway to training."

When he returns to the Cork hurling defence for 2023 he will do so alongside freshly appointed captain Sean O'Donoghue, his colleague in the full-back line for June's All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway.

Cahalane reckons it was a good choice for team skipper.

"Sean is a serious operator," said Cahalane. "He's a guy that you want in your corner, an ultimate professional to be fair. Just a really, really solid guy and yeah, I'm looking forward to playing with him again."

Cahalane's immediate focus is on the provincial championship as the Barrs attempt to become the first Cork team since Newtownshandrum in 2009 to win it.

They will need landmark wins over Tony Kelly's Ballyea and then Ballygunner, Na Piarsaigh or Kilruane MacDonaghs to claim the title.

"We’re not maybe looking at it that deeply in terms of what it does for the county as a whole but definitely the message we’d be trying to get across is that, you don’t know when this opportunity will come about again," said Cahalane.

"I know we’re perceived probably as a young team. I played in my first county semi-final at 16 years of age against Newtown and I thought, great, this is going to happen every year.

"But it doesn’t, it’s the same for those lads coming through now, you don’t know when that opportunity is going to come about again so for sure we’re going to give it our all again and if it’s good enough it is and if it’s not we’ll be safe in the knowledge of knowing that at least we gave it a good lash anyway."