'We don't owe anyone anything': Glen captain Lynch on reconciling 2023 relegation with top flight supremacy

Glen captain Adam Lynch

A strange reality is Glen Rovers returning to the semi-final stage of the little All-Ireland for the first time in five years.

Has it really been five years?

This, after all, is the club that contested six county finals in the eight seasons from 2014-21. From such concluding Sunday consistency to complete vanishment from the month of October is quite the downward swing.

A five-year period where plenty of water flowed under the Christy Ring bridge: An unexpected quarter-final defeat to Newtownshandrum in 2022, even if Patrick Horgan was absent; an unexpected group stage defeat to Bishopstown the following summer; subsequent relegation and loss of the club’s 97-year top-flight status; a semi-final fright from Castlelyons in the lower Senior A tier; a thankfully short one-season Senior A stay.

The group that lost the club its top table seat is the same group that won back said seat as quickly as the GAA calendar would allow. But to fully reconcile the relegation episode, do the group feel they must return the club to the winners' enclosure at Premier Senior?

“No, I don’t think so,” replied Glen captain Adam Lynch.

“There are a lot of players that won counties on the pitch and obviously we went down and came back up, but every player just wants to go on and win the county, not just because we were relegated or I don’t think we owe anyone anything, to be honest.”

Midleton are their semi-final opponents on Sunday. 

It was Midleton who ended their involvement at the quarter-final juncture last year.

Nine minutes into the second half of this quarter-final, the Glen led by seven. They were outgunned 1-9 to 0-3 from there to the finish. There have been fade-outs of varying sizes in all four of their championship outings this year. It is a performance characteristic of theirs that needs silencing.

“We said before the quarter-final we have to play for the full 60. We do sometimes let teams into it, and you can’t afford to have 15, 20-minute blips,” Lynch continued.

“When Charleville got the goal late on, we went up and got a score to make it a four-point game. That was a good response. The Kanturk game was huge for us in the way we came back into it given they were two up late on. I don’t think we won a close game like that in Premier Senior in a good few years.

“There is always a cliche that Hoggie gets all the scores, but [Eoin] O'Leary and Simon [Kennefick] were unbelievable against Kanturk. The three of them got the last three scores to win by two.

“Last year was first year back up, got to the quarters, and now this year I feel we are motoring a bit.” 

With Tomás Mulcahy providing managerial stability in this his third campaign at the helm, the latest high-profile coach to hold the whistle in Blackpool is Waterford’s Donal O’Rourke. 

The 29-year-old defender said the players are nothing short of “blessed” to be exposed to such top-shelf coaching year in, year out.

“Tommy [Dunne] was excellent last year, Donal has been excellent this year. He doesn’t miss a trick. Every session is different. Every session is 100 miles an hour. Ian Jones is in with us too. They’ve pushed us since the start of the year.

“Even for the younger fellas on the panel to be learning off these fellas has been very important.”