'Love of hurling' keeps O'Doherty coming back as Derry look to finally claim Christy Ring honours

Derry hurler Cormac O'Doherty. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Christy Ring Cup final day, or Groundhog Day if your name is Cormac O'Doherty.

This afternoon's decider against Kerry will be the Derry captain's fourth in a row, his fifth in six seasons. He's scored 2-39 across all of those games but lost the lot.

You might even wonder why he keeps coming back.

"The love of hurling," responded O'Doherty, shrugging. "I don't think anyone would question that with me."

To break out of the losing cycle, Derry will need to produce a win against the head. Sure, they beat Kerry just a fortnight ago, and a strong Kerry team at that, to secure their final place.

But the Kingdom, desperate to make a swift return to the Joe McDonagh Cup, are such strong favourites as to suggest that if you place a tenner on Derry at 6/1, your returns will be precisely zero.

Derry at least aren't doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes. The team they've named for today's final has only six survivors from last year's lineout. So there is fresh hope.

"If you actually go back to the Offaly final in 2021, there's maybe only three of us still playing," said Sleacht Néill's O'Doherty.

Which makes you think, they must have a lot of quality players in the county to lose so many and keep making Christy Ring Cup finals?

"The pool of players is definitely there," nodded O'Doherty. "It's getting that commitment from everyone to buy into it. If we can get to Joe McDonagh, that might hopefully entice players to commit. But look, we have a group of players there at the minute that want to hurl for Derry."

O'Doherty's clubmate, Ruairí Ó Mianain, such an exciting talent and a scorer of two points in last year's final, accepted an invite from the county footballers this season. War horses Mark Craig and Paddy Kelly retired.

"Then there were a few of the younger lads who stepped away, maybe it was just a couple of tough defeats too much, maybe they just wanted a break from inter-county because it is hectic," said O'Doherty.

Either way, Derry are back where they want to be, on the cusp of promotion.

"For me and a few of the experienced lads who have soldiered for five or six of those finals, it'd be a massive achievement, something that would give us so much pride," said O'Doherty of what a win would mean. "For me personally, it would mean everything."