CHRISTY MOOREHOUSE — COUNTY HURLER OF THE YEAR

If truth be told, anyone predicting award winners early last year probably wouldn’t have given Christy Moorehouse a sniff of a chance of being the man accepting the County Hurler of the Year award from County Chairman Martin Coleman and Leinster Council Vice-Chairman Jim Bolger in the Arklow Bay Hotel last Saturday night.

The well noted issue over the county captaincy left the Bray Emmets star feeling less than enthusiastic about operating under that management unit so, feeling as though he had no choice, he opted out of the camp and began concentrating on hurling with his beloved Bray.

But things change and some calm words and honest discussion brought the talented Christy back into the fold and his return boosted Wicklow’s chances of survival as they faced two relegation battles in the one season. And survive they did.

“Last year we went back with the county and I thought it was a good set up and things were going well. But, obviously, things were said and some lads denied that certain things were said and it seemed to me that it was all a kind of a lie from the start so when you hit a bit of a speed bump at the start of the year it’s hard to unravel things straight away and when you’re not winning and not performing and lads are not happy with the situation one thing leads to another, so I stepped away from situation because I felt that, at the time, it was the best thing do because instead of giving a half effort I said I’d step away and I forgot about it as soon as I stepped away.

“I was devastated that I wasn’t hurling, obviously, but everything else like the captaincy and that went out the door and I wished Billy (Cuddihy) the best for the year and, in fairness to him, he did a great job for the year.

“But, obviously a few phone calls were made and I was asked to go to a meeting in Arklow with the County Board and the management and I went down and there was a few things laid out on the table and we sorted it out and we shook hands and we got on with it.

“I said I’d go back and I did and unfortunately I got injured and the hamstring went very bad and didn’t really get going at all really.

“We struggled through the year to say the least and it wasn’t a great year and the best thing about it was that we beat Derry in the relegation (final) and here we are going for the Christy Ring again this year,” he said.

The shrewd management skills of John Henderson allowed Christy Moorehouse to recover from his injury and the results of that break in play was an outstanding championship campaign which resulted in the Bray wizard captaining his side to their threein-a-row and him collecting his third Man of the Match award in a row as well.

“Once we stopped (with the county) we went back to the clubs and I got a rest.

“John Henderson is a great man for looking after lads individually and collectively so he called me over and he said just take a break and relax. He knew the leg wasn’t right and the body wasn’t right, I wasn’t fit so he told me to take a few weeks off. I actually hurled Carnew that week and after that I took a few weeks off and refreshed things and got the leg going again and everything was 100 per cent.

“And nobody said I was captain of the Bray Emmets team. He just said to let it figure itself out and the lads would know who the captain was themselves and at the first championship match he gave me the nod.

“He didn’t want to announce me as the captain because it would look a bit desperate after what had happened with the county but he felt that I was the best man for the captaincy that year and I was absolutely delighted to get and it was a privilege to captain my club and I think I said it to yourself last year, we lost Gus Cash around this time, his anniversary was yesterday, and to be honest, we had a meeting soon after that and we said that we’d give this a push for Gus because he is one of the legends of the club and everyone loves him and I still can’t believe he’s gone.

“And every game we hurled last year, personally myself I would have remembered Gus and what he would have said to me on the days of a match and I really drove on from there and I showed by example and, obviously, the little thing that happened with the county was in the back of the head, and every match you go out to play you want to do your best and we had a great year, it was dream land stuff, you couldn’t write it, and getting the three Man of the Match awards was brilliant but, listen, these things find you, there’s no point going looking for these things, they’ll find you.