ÉiÉire ÓÓg bbreakk iinto t Senior ranks with thrilling final win
HE has achieved it all at the highest level with Cork, but, not surprisingly, Daniel Goulding regards sharing in Éire Óg’s county PIFC triumph as the main highlight of his glittering career.
Involved with the club’s adult team for the best part of two decades, he remembers how bad things were when he started out, which makes last Sunday’s achievement in Páirc Uí Rinn all the more satisfying, according to the 33-year old stalwart.
“When I first played junior with a group of over thirties, Éire Óg hadn’t won a championship game in years, and now we are going up senior, which is a tribute to everyone in the club for all the work that has been done to get us to where we are.
“It’s extra special when you win with your club, that goes without saying I think, and I’ve always dreamed of days like this, because I’ve been going down to the local pitch since I was five years of age,” he revealed.
“You couldn’t count the number of people that have looked after me over the years, some of them have passed away as have a few of the guys I played with, and I know they are looking down on us today.
“We’ve gone from junior to senior in the space of eleven years, we’ve won three county titles now, but we won’t be resting on our laurels, because we want to be competitive every year,” stated the former interstar, who won an All-Ireland medal and an All-Star award in 2010 and 2009 respectively.
Reflecting on the showdown with St Michaels in the PIFC decider, Goulding felt it was primarily Éire Óg’s resilience that got them over the line.
“To be honest, I thought we didn’t make it easy on ourselves today, but it’s testimony to the character of the team that we always responded when the pressure came on. We’ve been doing that all year, we would have been beaten in games against Aghada, Newmarket and Bantry, but for showing a never-say-die attitude, which is great.
“Over the past few years, we’ might have left games behind us due to not being as committed as we should have been, but to a man, we put our heart and soul into it this season,” said Goulding, who felt the recruitment of his former Cork colleague Paudie Kissane as team trainer made a big difference.
“I’m not taking anything away from the lads involved last year, who did amazing work, but I can’t give Paudie Kissane enough praise. He has been incredible, he would be a big addition to a county team, and we’re so grateful he came on board with us, although we might have a bit of trouble getting him to stay, because we’ll be in the same grade as his own club Clyda Rovers next year.”
Much of the credit for Éire Óg’s remarkable rise up the rankings has to go to Harry O’Reilly, who steered the team to county intermediate glory in his first season involved as manager in 2014.
Clearly elated by their graduation to senior ranks, O’Reilly believes they are well-equipped to hold their own at a higher level, but he insists their immediate focus will be on lifting a Munster title before the year is out.
“We intend to rattle Munster, but, needless to say, we’ll enjoy this victory for a week or so before we get back to hard work.” he stated.
O’Reilly felt that Éire Óg’s good start was crucial, serving to sustain them in the face of St Michaels determined bid to snatch the initiative as the game wore on.
“We never fell behind, which was very important, and we defended well towards the end when all the players got stuck in and gave it their all. We’ve had some fierce battles with St Michael’s in recent years, so we knew it was going to be another tight one today, and we’re absolutely delighted to come out of it with a couple of points to spare.”