An All-Ireland crown years in the making fo Tullogher

They may be the most senior members of the team, but there was no denying the pride that Walter Walsh and Pat Hartley felt as Tullogher-Rosbercon roared to All-Ireland glory.

“It’s unbelievable to win an All-Ireland with this group of young and talented players,” said Walsh “It’s brilliant for the likes of Pat and myself.”

Walsh and Hartley were the last men standing from the 2009 final when another Cork side, Dripsey, dashed their All-Ireland hopes. They could have been forgiven for thinking they would never get another chance to win with their club, but…

“It was brilliant to get a second chance,” he said. “We went down to the junior grade four years ago, and while the idea was to come straight back up, as you know it doesn’t happen like that.

“The junior championship in Kilkenny is so competitive, it’s really challenging to get out of it. We’ve been very lucky to do that - a few games went our way - but we’re looking forward now to playing intermediate hurling again. I played most of my career with Tullogher playing and challenging in that grade, so I’m delighted to be back there again.”

“Coming up here for this final was all about enjoyment,” said Hartley. “I never felt pressure like when we beat St Lachtain’s to get back to the intermediate grade,” he said. “After that the pressure was off. You still want to win, but if you made a mistake you quickly forgot about it. It was a case of ‘if you miss a ball, go for the next one twice as hard’.”

Winning the All-Ireland capped a fine year for Man of the Match Hartley and his team-mates, who had been focussed on restoring their intermediate status for a few years.

“In 2018 we played Graigue-Ballycallan in an intermediate county semi-final,” he recalled. “We could have won on the day but didn’t - they won and went on to become a senior team. The following year we were relegated. We regrouped in the meantime and contested a minor Roinn A final against Dicksboro and lost by a point, but played well at that grade for a few years.

“All that work, together with the older lads, saw things click into place,” he added. “It was good enough to get us back up to intermediate and to win the All-Ireland.”

A lot of the route to glory came through a crack forward unit, who punished St Catherine’s at times.

“Standing there at centre-back I could see the ball going into the lads and I remember thinking ‘no team could live with that power and pace’,” said Hartley. “We were on point for the first 20 or 25 minutes, which showed how good we are. We got a little sloppy after that, but we had leaders in Davy (Walsh) and Donncha (O’Connor) who stood up to the mark and helped us get over the line.”