Kanturk’s fairytale season gets stuck in the mud

They call it Fortress Kanturk, and with good reason.

February 2008 was the last time Kanturk lost a game at their Knocknacolan base, and it took one of the best junior sides in Ireland to finally put an end to that proud record on Saturday.

Just short of five years ago, Ennis won here in a Munster Division 2 league game; number eight Dan McCabe joked that he’s blocked the defeat out of his mind, but he has a fair idea of the origins of the Duhallow side’s incredible run.

“We take a lot of pride in ourselves here, we don’t like losing and I don’t think many teams like coming here,” he said. “It’s up high, it’s cold and wet, we’ve pulled a lot of games out of the fire here. But on Saturday we gave them too much of a head-start.”

All roads in Duhallow led to Kanturk, these days challenging at the summit of Division 1, on Saturday. Outsiders couldn’t help but appreciate the huge signage pointing the way to the club’s grounds from the town centre, the locals who provided fields and yards for overflow parking, the shuttle buses to ensure late arrivals didn’t miss kick-off and the friendly lads in high-vis jackets making it all happen.

“Everyone jumped on the bandwagon!” laughed McCabe, whose every powerful carry was accompanied by shouts of encouragement and expectation from the home fans, leaving you in little doubt who their talisman was.

“Our chairman (Michael Breen) was all over the radio this week too. We have a serious band of loyal supporters; the local GAA boys would also come up for a look.

“It’s a good set-up here, a nice clubhouse and we look after our supporters as well.”

The weather was the only part that didn’t play ball. With wind and horizontal rain rolling in from the south, umbrellas were utilised in front or behind their owners, not above, depending on which side you chose. Four enterprising teenagers had even taped bin bags together to protect their backs from the deluge.

All that moved faster than the clouds streaming by overhead were Aaron Deverell’s raking touch-finders. The Tullamore out-half managed the game superbly in awful conditions while his rampaging pack took full advantage. The 24-0 scoreline was probably a bit flattering, but reflected the holders’ clinical pursuit of scores.

“That was easily our best performance of the season,” purred Tullamore coach John Moylan; high praise indeed for a side who have a Leinster League Division 1A title in their back pocket already and are eyeing promotion to the senior ranks. “You could see the potential in Tullamore last year; we lost out in the league to Skerries, and we just needed to get fitter. We had a fierce pre-season — we even did a bit of white collar boxing.”

A cup final against Enniscorthy and the round robin AIL qualifiers await them, but Kanturk’s performance graph is heading upward too; there’s a Challenge Cup final date with Richmond to look forward to in a fortnight’s time and more potential silverware in the Munster Junior and County Cups.

“Tullamore are a serious outfit, they should go up (to) senior,” said McCabe. “We gave it our best shot. If we can get a bit of silverware this season we’ll be happy.”