‘Getting up again for next weekend will not be a problem at all’ – Duane
LAST Saturday Donagh Duane’s all-conquering home town club Kanturk took another step into the unknown as they booked their place in the Intermediate club final for the first – another first! – in their long history.
Ulster opposition, again a first, stood in their way as the Duhallow men went in search of a showdown with St Patrick’s of Ballyragget at Headquarters eight days later.
Saturday’s fixture with Middletown Na Fianna of Armagh was never likely to be the toughest of opponents for Kanturk. However on a less than ideal day for hurling, against an opposition that had pedigree, Kanturk could take no chances and on the day they were clinical, committed and better – winning out by all of ten points at Newbridge.
“Fantastic, I was delighted with the way our fellas approached the game – very professionally,” Duane said on the final whistle.
“It is hard to prepare for a game like this when you are unaware of the opposition, but we knew they had the experience of winning an All-Ireland semi-final and that they had been to Croke Park and we knew they would be hungry but our fellas knew their job from the word go and that clearly paid off with a great start.”
“From the word go we had a tactic to run at them, to run quick to work fast and that worked almost straight away with our first goal. That really settled us down early and that was obviously a real advantage going forward. It wasn’t a training ground move, it just looked that way.
“The lads are experienced and managed to work the opening. In fact they could have taken a point on a number of occasions in the move and that would have settled us down too but they thankfully went for the goal when the opportunity arrived. It was a great move and a great finish and gave us the start we wanted.
“The two early goals gave us that cushion all the way through the game and it didn’t seem to matter to the players what the scoreboard said, they just kept plugging away and driving it on.”
Despite being nine points up at the break Duane was taking nothing for granted after some earlier scares in the championship.
“We have experienced games before where we were up eight or nine points against Ballyduff and were brought back to level so we when that the job was far from done at half time. We kept banging that home to the lads, this one was far from over.
“We instilled in the players at half time about the work rate, blocking hooking and all that and I thought all that was really good today. Not too many wides either which was another plus for us and other than a few small knocks we seem have come through okay. We got some good scores and some good goals and that is all good for us.”
Without free taker Liam O’Keeffe, Kanturk were down a serious threat, but Duane was confident that his replacement was more than capable of taking up the challenge.
“Sure you know what you get with Lorcán (McLoughlin). A cool head, loads of experience, plenty of calmness in him and very happy with him and all the other lads on the day.”
Although the game was just secured the manager’s mind had already began focusing on next week as the short turnaround wasn’t leaving any time to celebrate Saturday’s achievements.
“We have just eight days to go. The town and the players will be buzzing now and rightfully so. We will head to training on Monday night and work hard again. We know it will be difficult but that’s what you have to expect going into an All-Ireland final.
“We did well last year playing weekend after weekend so I am sure that getting up again for next weekend will not be a problem for all concerned.”
Duane will lead his Kanturk side to headquarters next Sunday with the cheers of their fellow Duhallow men pulling every effort over the bar. Duane will know that he and his band of north Cork stars are just 60-65 minutes away from achieving what some of the greatest hurlers that ever lived failed to do – take home an All-Ireland club winners medal.