Cashel expecting another great battle with Swan in a game of high stakes

Taking the helm of a GAA club at the minute is time- consuming but a labour of love that Cashel King Cormacs’ Seanie O’Donoghue is hugely passionate about.

“It is big business now not just as chairman of the club but you are managing everybody,” he says ahead of Sunday’s County Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship final against Carrick Swan at FBD Semple Stadium (1.30).

“From the juvenile side of it to the senior side of it, but we have a lot of really good people in the club that make it tick and we are ambitious too.

“We have a very good working senior executive and it is a club that is going places. I was 10 years juvenile chairman and I worked my ass off to gets things organised in the club.

“To see them playing at adult level, and flourishing by making a huge addition to the team, is great.

King cormacs  feel they have been  in hurling’s wilderness too long: “We have been down a long, long time but after the semi-final we are a game away from where we should be, which is in the Dan Breen Cup hunt.

“I’m delighted for the management and players who have put in the hard yards since January and they showed real character to win after extra-time in the semi final,” Cashel chair Seanie O'Donoghue says.

Those sentiments are echoed by team captain James Cummins, who has put in a monumental effort to get to the highest level of club hurling in the county.

They aren’t there yet but the players are looking forward to the day, he says. “We are no strangers the last couple of years to county quarters and county semi- finals and this year now we are after breaking that barrier.
 
Cashel have put in the hard yards: “We are after putting in the yards and losing that semi-final last year drove us on this year to reach the final,” James says.

After losing last year’s semi-final to Lorrha, this year’s equivalent was a real thunderbolt of a game with Upperchurch.
It was Cashel who emerged winners after extra- time, with teenager Oisin O’Donoghue striking two key goals in extra-time.

James Cummins says the final whistle was sweet: “I couldn’t put it into words what it meant to the lads, particularly the older lads.

“Younger lads like Ronan (Connolly) and Oisin (O’Donoghue) are now key cogs in the team and they are pushing us on”.
Everything goes into playing nowadays, and the Cashel captain says hurling is all-consuming.

“A huge amount of time goes into it, from training to organising gym sessions between ourselves right down to your eating and how you look after yourself.

“How you mind yourself off the field, train well, it all goes hand in hand I suppose as there is no one leg in and one leg out.

“Everyone knows what has to be done”. 

The right half back has soldiered for a number of years with Cashel and has tasted victory and defeat against the Swans in that time.

“We had great battles with the Swans up along. Look, we will just see what happens on the day.

“It is an unusual final, as there is one team that we know we are not going to get an easy match from, that is just not going to happen.

“Finals are there for winning and we are going to push on now, we have to for the club.

“Everyone outside of it might think Premier Intermediate is a lower grade than senior but it is not so easy to get up to the top, as it has been six or seven years since we got to a county final.

“I am playing with Cashel 11 years and I have been on teams that have come up and went down at intermediate. I have seen it both sides. Everyone’s singing from the same hymnsheet now so this is our year to win and go back up to senior hurling”.