Castlelyons won the 2023 Cork Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship.
By Cian O’Connell
Following several harrowing defeats in the latter stages of the Cork Premier Intermediate Championship, Castlelyons delivered in 2023.
Silverware was secured ensuring Castlelyons now enter the AIB Munster Club Intermediate Championship heartened. With a nice cocktail of emerging and established players, momentum has been generated by Noel Furlong’s promising outfit.
Selector Brendan Hoare is encouraged that Castlelyons had reason to cheer in recent months. “We had a couple of near misses in the last few years, we lost finals in 2020 and 2021,” Hoare explains.
“We got to a semi-final again last year, but we went again. We knew we had to raise the levels again, but we've had a great year. It was brilliant to get over the line after a few near misses, it probably makes it all the more sweeter in the end when you finally get there.”
Inspiring the next generation matters deeply in sport. Castlelyons endured pain along the way, but they face Crotta O’Neill’s at the weekend armed with equal measures of hope and expectation. “The last time Castlelyons won anything was 25 years ago when we won the same championship to go up to the top senior grade at the time,” Hoare recalls.
“We spent a few years up at senior, but since then it has been a barren enough spell. In 2013 we lost the final in premier intermediate to Youghal with a few experienced guys and a lot of young lads. We didn't think it would take another 10 years to get up there.
“A lot of the senior lads now were the young lads back then, it is great to get over the line. The near misses in the last few years, it was just a matter of using that experience.
Castlelyons players celebrating at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
"In fairness to the management team that was there in the last few years, they did great work to the team to that level.
“This year Noel Furlong came in, there was a new set-up, and maybe a bit of freshness, I suppose. It brought something a bit new and added to the strong foundation that was there already. Finally we got over the line, thankfully.”
The highly regarded Furlong has enjoyed success at club and inter-county level. Furlong’s arrival brought an extra dimension to Castlelyons. “He has a great record as a player and as a coach,” Hoare says.
“He had great success with various clubs and just brought in that winning mentality. He knows how to win. We had a really foundation from the last few years, it was just a case of adding to that, building on it.
“A new voice on the training field, and it was about putting in the hard work. There is no real secret other than that, this bunch of players have just worked so, so hard all year. It was great to get the reward at the end of it all.”
Remaining relevant has been a challenge for Castlelyons, but sheer hard work in the underage ranks counts for so much according to Hoare. “We are a small club, we have a very small pick,” he says .
“There wouldn't be a huge amount of development or new housing in the parish so we have a very small pick. Still, the juvenile club is very strong, there is great work going on. At the end of the day it is a numbers game, we have small numbers.
Former Cork minor hurling manager Noel Furlong is in charge of Castlelyons.
“It is probably cyclical, our senior guys on the current team, in their late 20s, we have a good bunch of them, who would have played at a very high level back along at minor and stuff.
"That is the foundation of this team and then, in fairness, in the last few years some young fellas have come on.
“This year we had two or three young lads, who have really established themselves on the team, they had a big impact. Every year you're just hoping to pick up a couple of fellas from the underage.”
Castlelyons now want to produce on the provincial stage. That is the next step. “It is brilliant to win the county finally, we enjoyed that, we celebrated it which was only right,” Hoare acknowledges.
“Then we decided that we were going to give Munster a right crack. We've been training hard for the last few weeks, it has been going well.
“We are under no illusions about the task ahead of us, Crotta had a fantastic win on Sunday, they are a really strong team and have that game under their belts going into it. We have prepared well, we will be hoping to give a good account of ourselves.”
This is an exciting chapter in the Castlelyons story.
