Erin’s Own’s determined to take opportunity, says Dooley

The Glounthaune side are 60 minutes from the concluding Sunday of the second tier on Leeside.

Erin's Own captain Cormac Dooley and Fermoy captain Peter Murphy with referee Brendan Barry Murphy. Picture: Amy Allen.

Cormac Dooley was Erin’s Own’s 23-year-old full-back on the 2016 afternoon of their county senior final appearance. The Glounthaune establishment led Glen Rovers inside the final 10 minutes. And even if they ultimately came up two points short, there was an expectation they’d continue to knock about the championship’s later stages in the years thereafter.

Cormac Dooley is now Erin’s Own’s 33-year-old left half-back. There hasn’t been a single county final appearance since. Never mind reaching the concluding Sunday, the club no longer holds top-flight status.

Reduced Senior A membership has thus far been rehabilitative for the crowd that Dooley now captains. For the first time since that aforementioned 2016 campaign, there have been three consecutive championship wins. And irrespective of the order they arrived in, there hadn’t been three championship wins in a single campaign since 2017.

Erin’s Own sit 60 minutes from the concluding Sunday of the second tier. It doesn’t matter the grade. This is a club yearning final involvement.

“I am 14, 15 years lining out for Erin’s Own. We got to the county final in 2016, and at 23 you think you are going to be there or thereabouts every year. I haven’t seen one since. I am not getting any younger. You have to take this opportunity,” Dooley said of Saturday’s semi-final against Watergrasshill.

“That is a point we have been stressing to the young lads that are coming through, how we were there in 2016 and we haven’t been there since, so you need to take the opportunity when it comes to you.

“It would mean loads to the club to get back to a county final. We have been growing underage, so it would be brilliant for the club to be in a county final, to win a county final.

“We had success with the second team in recent years, winning the county junior in 2022 and then the Premier Junior in '23, but there is nothing like your top team getting a bit of success. It would do wonders for the club.” Saturday represents a first semi-final for the club’s flagship side since the 2022 Premier Senior defeat to Blackrock. In the space of four years, the rate of dressing-room churn has been ferocious.

Of the 18 who featured against the Rockies, only seven were still inside the whitewash for their final group game against Fermoy two weeks ago.

A new team and a new generation has emerged.

Six of the team that started the final group outing against Fermoy - Tiernan Connell, Cian Dunphy, Oran O’Regan, Peter O’Shea, Matt O’Riordan, and Finn O’Brien - were members of the club’s U21 team last year. All bar O’Regan are U21 again this year.

“We have a lot of lads that are 19, 20, 21, their only experience of adult hurling might have been getting a few draws, scraping a win here or there. They are crying out for a bit of success,” Dooley continued.

“Once they got the first championship win, the second one, it really gives them confidence to go forward and know they can perform on the adult stage. Ideally, it would have been on the Premier Senior stage they’d cut their teeth, but we are where we are, and we just have to get on with it.

“You can talk all you want about Erin’s Own should be favourites or they should be getting back up. You have to do it out on the pitch. You can’t do it by talking about it.

“We are really happy with where we are at, but hopefully not finished yet.”

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