John Horgan reports on the Evening Echo County Senior Hurling Final

IT’S an enduring image of a day when Newtownshandrum finally became undisputed hurling kings of Cork. Bernie O’Connor is on his knees, hands raised to the skies in an act of thanksgiving after the players he had coached had just won the club its first ever SHC title.

The year is 2000 and Erins Own have been conquered in the final and the whole world is in the hands of a brand new force in Cork hurling. Nothing will ever surpass that day, not even the All Ireland club win of a few years later and through the ages the sight of the baron, as he is affectionately known, will be forever associated with that sacred day.

Three years later on a March afternoon in 2003 when they climbed the staircase to All Ireland victory at Croke Park, he was just a spectator in the stand. The torch had been passed on. That was then and this is now and he’s back, back where most would tell you he belongs, patrolling the sideline as Newtown go in search of the holy grail again.

Hurling is in this man’s blood, was, is and always will be and what he and his family have given to Cork hurling will remain unequalled. So why did he come back, back into the thick of it all again when he had nothing to prove to anybody. After all he had been there, done that. And the old adage that they never come back must have crossed his mind.

“It was simple, the players asked me. I had no intention of it, I was finished at it, I was busy here and I wouldn’t do it anymore. “But the players asked me to give it one more fling and I always had fierce respect for this bunch of players.

“Pat Mulcahy was one of the players that asked me but first of all I said no. I felt that it would be interfering with what I am doing here and it probaby does. But I weighed up everything and I suppose that deep down I would have to say that I missed it.

“I still wonder did I do the right thing but if we win a county again it will be justiified.’’ He has been asked this question over and over again, how did he feel that day in Croke Park when the players he had nurtured, the players he knew like the back of his hand raised the club championship trophy aloft and he hadn’t hand, act or part in it.

“A lot of people have asked me that question. The way I would answer it is, if I was with them would I have been there a year too long, would we have won an All Ireland at all and maybe they needed a fresh face. “That’s something we’ll never know but I still got the same satisfaction out of it. I was able to sit in the stand, more relaxed, more away from it and I suppose be more critical.

“I always kept in the background but my heart and soul was still inside it . Would you believe I never saw them train when I was out of it. I felt why should I be there, there was fellows in charge now and would they get the wrong impression if I was coming up to see if they were doing it right. “The easiest way was to keep out of it. I went to all their matches but I felt my place was to stay out of it.’’ Having three sons on the team might create problems for some but, according to O’Connor, everybody is treated the exact same way. “It makes no difference. I wouldn’t spare them if I had to, they’d be the first to get a telling off if things were going wrong.

“As far as I am concerned each of them are one of 15 players. They are individuals and they have to do the very same thing as everybody else, they get no special priveleges. “I suppose it’s a bit different with John, the other two are so well known. But you can’t compare, he is as good as he is and at the moment that is good enough to keep him on our team and the day he is not he’ll get dropped the same as anybody else.. “He’s the type of player that will do whatever you want him to do. It may not look spectacular but it’s effective, keeping a good player out of a game and that is what he is being used at.’’

Twelve months ago, Newtown lost to Sunday’s opposition and there were fears in some quarters that the hunger so evident in winning two counties, a Munster championship and an All Ireland was no longer there. “ I was dead sure it wasn’t there and if you were with me up to last Sunday when we played the ‘Barrs you’d have believed me. “ The drive wasn’t in them, they were only going through the motions. They were going into matches, playing well for a quarter of an hour and thinking we can still do it. “ I think against the ‘Barrs was the first time this year, well it wasn’t, we played a challenge game against Portumna the Wednesday week before that and that was the first time that I said they are back.

“They played good hurling that night and they were put under a bit of pressure physically and they stood up to it big time. “Now we are after learning that we are there and it’s a matter of keeping it there.’’ Earlier in the campaign, Bride Rovers took them the full distance and O’ Connor admits that it could have ended that day in Fermoy. “We could have been beaten. That same night everything we did was wrong, touch, fellows taking three or four attempts to raise the ball. “That amazed me because we would spend a lot of time working on those aspects of our game. Mentally, that night they had this thing that they were going to beat Bride Rovers anyway’’.

He admits too that he took a bit of a gamble by deciding to go back. “ They always say you never go back but I felt the bite was gone out of them, and everyone has a belief in their own ability, and this is something I could do, bring it back. “ But we played a lot of matches and I doubted myself on a few occasions. But I think they are back now to where they need to be. “There is nothing else here only hurling. We had football a few years ago but I would say if it was kept here we wouldn’t have an All Ireland hurling title.

“ I don’t think you can do both of them successfully’’ He is a devout hurling man but admits that the standards have dropped alarmingly in recent years. “ I think the standard in the championship is terrible. I said it five years ago that it was nosediving at an alarming rate and I still think we are.

“Cork will still be good. There are good players around the county but there aren’t enough of them in enough teams. “ You look at this year’s finalists and you’d ask yourself after that what other team has a realistic chance of winning the county. “Even next year you can’t look farther than any of the two them again’’. So what is his solution to the ongoing trend of standards dropping ? “There must be somebody not doing the business at juvenile level. And still if you go around to any of these places you have hundreds of young fellows training but there must be something being done wrong because an awful lot of youngfellows when they come to 16 or 17 drift away.

“I think there is not enough coaches, there are coaches in clubs but an awful lot of them are fellows who had no interest in hurling but just because their youngfellow got involved and they decide I’ll become the coach of that team now because I’ll be going to the games anyway. “Clubs are delighted because they’ll have somebody there but these guys know nothing about hurling.’’ Hurling in the big towns and it’s failure to impact is something that concerns him greatly. “ Take places like Mallow, Charleville and Fermoy and it’s my belief that there should be a paid coach and preferably somebody who played the game.

“There’s no good giving out these certificates. You have to be able to prove you can coach. There’s no good in going to get togethers because you are not going to have the finished article because they can’t tell them exactly what they should do. “ I think there has to be coaches with the right credentials paid for by the GAA. Paid proper money and not this thing through FAS or whatever. “Then you take players who are interested in playing the game, grade them.

If some youngfellow comes up and says he wants to play you take him. “He may not have a clue but he wants it and you take him, Likewise if a fellow says he does not want to play you forget about him.’’ For now, though, it’s all about one hour next Sunday, another defining day in career that glitters with achievement and satisfaction. “ It’s great that it’s two villages. It shows where the power has swung to. A few years back the likes of Cloyne and Newtown were down junior and intermediate and the city clubs were dominating but all that has changed.

“Maybe the transfer law affected that to a certain extent . It helped the country clubs but I wonder did it affect the standard of hurling at the same time. “ The two that are there now are steeped in the tradition and it will be a great final. “Cloyne want this final and it will be up to match that hunger. It will be very hard because Cloyne are very strong physically and we can’t cope with their physical power. “ We’ll have to keep away from them but whether we can or not I don’t know.

I am delighted they are in it and if we are to be beaten by them it will be nice to see them win their first title. Will Newtown win ? “Our players are ready for it. They are in the right frame of mind and it’s down now to an hour and if they play to their best they’ll win,’’ “If they don’t they’ll lose.

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