Raw pain of relegation drove Erin's Own to immediate bounceback, insists O'Riordan 

Erin's Own captain Cormac Dooley lifts the Jim Forbes Cup. Pic: Larry Cummins

Pain and pressure. Their year-long presence fueled a campaign that had only one acceptable outcome. Their presence delivered the requisite outcome.

The pain is self-explanatory. In September of last year, Erin’s Own were relegated from the topflight of Cork hurling. Forty-seven years of unbroken topflight involvement severed and shattered.

Adding to the dressing-room disgust at having been the group to lose the club its Premier Senior status was the fact they had led Newtownshandrum by five points as late as the 58th minute in the drawn relegation play-off.

“First year being relegated, you do have an opportunity to use that pain, because there is pain, to try and motivate players to get themselves back up and to try and make amends,” said Erin’s Own manager Brendan O’Riordan.

“Because they were disappointed in themselves. They feel they let themselves down, they let the management down, they let the club down, and they wanted it. That pain is raw and it does help teams to come back up on the first bounce.” 

Erin’s Own are three-time Cork senior hurling champions. 1992, 2006, and 2007. They were last finalists in 2016 and semi-finalists as recently as 2022. 

The top table of Cork hurling is where they see themselves belonging. The players felt a pressure to rewrite the change in status that had come about on their watch.

“I didn't feel pressure. I'd say the players maybe felt pressure,” O’Riordan continued.

“They probably felt they had to atone for what happened last year, but that wasn't coming from the management side of it. Players definitely felt pressure to set the record straight.

“They really committed to the year. Even going back to the league games, challenge games, there was a focus there from them. The standard of their application in training was of the highest level. That's why they got over the line today.” 

Relegation can also be a restorative reset. O’Riordan was in concurrence with such a train of thought.

Across the three seasons before relegation, Erin’s Own had won one, drawn two, and lost six group games. The emerging crew were unfamiliar with winning on a regular basis. They were unfamiliar with winning full stop.

This Senior A campaign has concluded with five consecutive victories.

“They probably spent the last three years struggling for wins. A draw here, a draw there, just about avoiding a relegation play-off. That was the story for the last number of years,” said the manager.

“It nearly was inevitable that we were going to get relegated eventually. If you're at that part of the championship every year and then you come down, you start winning games, it gives you confidence.

“Everybody likes to win. You get a bit of momentum. You start believing in what you're doing in training, what you're being asked to do. It kind of mushrooms from there.

“After everything we put into this year, we can kind of relax now. I'm always quoting a former basketball coach in America, how success is the self-satisfaction that comes from knowing you did the best of which you're capable of.

“That's for the players, really. They put in the effort. They're the ones that won it.”

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