Ciarán Joyce: 'It was definitely overwhelming at the start - the noise, the parade, it’s all different'

DREAM DEBUT: A debut of dreams where Ciarán Joyce did so much more than hunt and hound Gearóid Hegarty. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Can a Croke Park debut come more daunting than taking on the five-in-a-row chasing champions in front of an 82,300-sell-out audience?

Yes, yes it absolutely can.

Try, for size, a Croke Park debut against the five-in-a-row chasing champions in front of an 82,300-sell-out audience where your brief is to hunt and hound one of the frontrunners for hurler of the year. Daunting, and then some.

Not for Ciarán Joyce, though. A debut of dreams where he did so much more than hunt and hound Gearóid Hegarty.  Hego was a prominent puck-out target of Nickie Quaid, which meant Joyce needed to be equally prominent in the air. As well as everywhere else on this field he was gracing for the first time.

On six minutes, the Croke Park debutant, who wasn’t even a Cork minor when Hegarty won his first senior All-Ireland back in 2018, bested the Limerick half-forward under the restart and was then fouled for a converted free.

When Patrick Collins repelled Hegarty’s goal effort on 46 minutes, who was there to dive on Gillane and the rebound only Joyce. He gathered possession amid a thicket of bodies only steps from his own goal and got the pass away to Mark Coleman who fed Declan Dalton for an outrageous point.

Ciarán Joyce is an outstanding and commanding talent. That has long been evident to those who first saw him stand out for Midleton CBS at Dean Ryan and Harty Cup level. But Ciarán Joyce is also just a young lad. 22 candles are all that are required for his 2024 birthday cake.

So before he thundered into his debut and Hegarty, he admitted to being overwhelmed by the amphitheatre of noise and colour. “It was definitely overwhelming at the start. The noise, just even the parade – it’s all different,” he said.

“You just need that first hit, that first ball, and you’re set for the rest of the game, then. The plan was to mark Hegarty, but he moved around. We dealt with that at half-time and in the second half I followed Hegarty.

“He’s an exceptional player and all over the field, it’s a phenomenal team. It’s actually frightening the players they have.” 

Hegarty was showing frightening form coming into Sunday’s semi-final. A return close to his 2020 hurler of the year form. His scoring average was just under 0-3 per game. Joyce held him to the solitary.

“He did a lot of good things in the game as well, not just scoring. He’s a great player, one of the hardest players I’ve ever marked,” the Cork defender continued.

We’d venture a guess that Hego might return the compliment.

A hamstring injury meant the Castlemartyr clubman sat out Cork’s earlier championship win over the champions. He was “gutted” to have been sidelined for the evening they saved their season. Sunday more than made up for that. Sunday was no surprise to him.

“Even earlier on in the year when we beat them, we had that sense of belief in the camp that we could do it again. Coming into this game, we were actually very confident.

“At half-time, no there wasn’t [panic] because we knew that we weren’t playing that well. Pat just said to us to keep doing our jobs, keep going by the game-plan and we’d come through in the end. 

“I think Fitzy set the tone in the first play. He sent the ball over the bar and it just gave us all belief that we could actually do it.

“It’s leaders like Fitzy, Hoggy, they’re the fellas you win for and you want to follow. Even Séamus Harnedy at the end, you’re just delighted for them types of fellas and you want to do it for them.” 

Harnedy and Hoggy are the two on-field survivors from the 2013 defeat to Clare. When the same Banner beat them on April 28 to leave Cork pointless after two rounds of provincial fare, an All-Ireland final appearance was a pipe dream. Not to Joyce. Not to this Cork team. They think different.  The half-back confidently proclaimed that had you told him and his winless teammates on April 28 that they’d end up in the decider, he’d have had no job believing you.

“To be honest, with the group we have, yeah definitely,” he said.

“The competition is actually frightening, if you look at the 30 players we have inside. Every night in training, it’s nearly the B team are beating the A team. We’ve 30 players who are well able to play any day in Croke Park. The group we have is exceptional and I really believe in them.

“In 2013, we can all remember, we lost to Clare and that’s going to be our motivation now over the next two weeks. There were a couple of lads involved with that team in that game and I’m sure they’ll want to right that wrong.”