Castletown dual players ready to bounce back in hurling

By John Harrington

Most of the Castletown Liam Mellows players who were defeated by St. Loman’s in the AIB Leinster Club SFC quarter-final on Sunday have an opportunity to make amends less than a week later.

The Wexford club have campaigned successfully on two fronts this year, winning the Wexford Intermediate ‘A’ Championship (the third tier of Wexford hurling) as well as the Senior Football Championship.

The hurlers are in action on Saturday in the AIB Leinster Club Junior Hurling Championship quarter-final against Wolfe Tones of Longford and their panel will include 10 players who featured in that match against St. Loman’s.

Team manager, Tommy Dixon, believes that defeat will only serve to motivate them rather than deflate them for another test six days later.

“Joe Gardiner is our captain and I was talking to him for a good bit this morning and he was saying they’re all feeling good,” says Dixon.

“Look, they're disappointed with the result against St. Loman’s and final scoreline didn't really flatter them. They played well in the first half and it was just disappointing then how the scoreline got away from them in the second-half.

“They knew it was a big ask going to St. Loman's because they're going very well and I think they have serious designs on that Leinster title. They're very well set up and very well drilled.

“Our lads are obviously disappointed but they're not too down in the dumps over it. It was bonus territory for us really.

“They're gunning to go again this weekend. They can put that defeat to St. Loman's to bed this weekend and push on and hopefully if we can get a win over Wolfe Tones we'll have another match to focus on the following week.

“They're a very hungry bunch of players, they're very determined.”

Castletown Liam Mellows have always been predominantly regarded as a Gaelic football club and sit top of the Wexford roll of honour with 13 county senior titles.

There have always been passionate hurling people in the club too, though, and this Intermediate hurling title, their first in 57 years, is the product of a harmonious relationship between both codes.

“There have been a few sticking points but it has been relatively easy,” says Dixon. “Castletown is a senior football club and over the years we would have been predominantly a football club but this year and in recent years there has been a big hunger for the hurling.

“There's a big cross over of players between both teams there was always a determination this year that we wouldn't just do well in one and struggle in the other.

“We had a conversation at the start of the year about putting our heads down and competing in both of them and things started to work really well by the middle of the year.

“We're a senior football club but we have some very talented hurlers too. I was involved with a lot of this team six or seven years ago at underage, the likes of Ross Cody and Eoin Cullen and Rory Heffernan, Robbie Brooks, they were just coming into the senior set-up then as 17/18-year-olds.

“I remember saying at the time that these lads are what we need to get over the line. We lost a couple of Intermediate ‘A’ Finals in recent years but we had a few conversations over the winter about really getting the group right this year and to win a championship.

“There's a couple of very good young fellas coming into the panel now as well. Austin Fanning has done great work for years at underage level in the club from U-13 up to minor and those lads have played premier hurling all the way up along and have been very competitive at that grade.

“Some of those kids are starting to filter in now and we felt that the time was right to really try to win it this year and be able to bring those lads into a senior team that's playing Intermediate hurling because they're well able to play at that level. We'd be hoping that a couple more young fellas breaking through would make us very competitive in it.”

Castletown enjoyed a comfortable win over Moorefield of Kildare in the first round of the AIB Leinster Junior Hurling Championship two weeks ago and are warm favourites going in to Sunday’s match against Wolfe Tones.

Win that, and a semi-final date with Louth senior hurling champions, St. Fechin’s, awaits the North Wexford club.

They had to wait 57 years to win a Wexford championship, and they’re determined to grasp the opportunity to seriously challenge for provincial silverware with both hands.

“It is a big opportunity, that's the way we're looking at it,” says Dixonn. “It's hard to gauge these teams when you haven't played them and you're trying to look at videos of their county finals.

“Moorefield probably weren't as well prepared as we were but they had played their county final four or five weeks previously whereas we went into that game straight after our county final and were still on a high from the football and hurling and everything went well for us that day and I'd say Moorefield just weren't as well prepared.

“Wolfe Tones, we just don't know. You'd be hopeful if we could just concentrate on what we've been doing all year that will be enough, we're very physically fit and strong and we'd be hopeful we could impose ourselves on the game.

“Wolfe Tones are senior champions in their own county and a lot of their players have played county hurling so you can't take anything for granted but we're really targeting this Leinster championship just to progress our club another level.

“If we could get to something like a Leinster Final it would be great for the club and for hurling in our club.

“Our supporters have really bought into it and in Kildare the last day the stand was full of Castletown Liam Mellows, they travelled in great numbers.

“We’re delight to still be hurling at this time of the year and hopefully we can keep it going, that’s the way we’re looking at it.