Gilbert says Rocks need a championship crown

LEADING his team out on Sunday afternoon for the IHC final against Avondale in Joule Park Aughrim will mean everything to Rocks captain Martin Gilbert who comes from a family steeped in hurling tradition in the town.

‘It means everything to me. Hurling has been in my family for generations. My dad played with the Rocks, my granddad played with the Rocks, my nanny hurled, everyone in the family hurled. It will mean everything to me (to lead the team out on the day),’ he said.

A poor run in the Leinster League competition which included a heavy defeat to their opponents on Sunday was the turning point for the Rocks team this year. Written off by everyone, the team arrived at a collective conclusion that if numbers were improved at training the hurling was in the lads to go and achieve something.

‘We had a bad auld run in the Leinster League and everyone had us wrote off for the whole year, we’ve been underdogs for everything, so I think we’ve put all them to shame. We’ve fought for everything, we’ve never been favourites for any game.

‘Avondale are the only team to beat us this year in Wicklow. If you look at the championship table, Avondale have the best scores, but we’ve the best defence in the league by a long, long way. They’ve been racking up a lot of scores against everyone, but I think they only beat us by eight points that day so a little bit more fight and we can put it up to them,’ he said.

‘Everyone got it into their heads that if we start training, we can hurl, every one of us can hurl, when we want to, we can hurl, so I think everyone got it into their heads that we are going to have a good crack at this this year. This is the youngest average team that the Rocks had had in a long, long time. You go back throughout the years you are going to have an older average team but five or six of us were playing Minor five or six years ago and then you have Shane Mellon and Sean Somers who were hurling Minor last year, that’s two more, so, I think the youth is finally coming through. But then you have the couple of older lads for the maturity.

‘Everyone got their heads together and Sean Pierce coming in as manager has been a big help. Sean was hurling with us last year and I know he’ll be sick that he’s not coming out with us on Sunday, I think he did the knee last year, so he took over as manager this year. And because he was one of the lads for the last five or six years, everyone wants to do it for him,’ he added.

The captaincy is important to Martin and was a wise choice by his manager Sean Pierce. The added responsibility has sat well with his captain and has him hurling superbly well.

‘It was up to Sean, he came to me the first game and said, ‘you’re my captain’. I said thanks very much. I’ve been hurling five years with the Senior team and I think this is my best year. Everyone is hurling great, but personally I think this is my best year,’ he said.

A battle with Kilcoole saw them book their place in the final. Martin believes that they were fortunate to emerge from what was a dogfight.

‘First half I felt we were in with a good chance, lads were fighting from 1 to 15, everyone was taking their scores, they were hooking, blocking, fighting for everything. Then we came out in the second half and Shane Mellon won the ball from the throw-in and he went down and I his shot was saved and from there on in it felt like we were fighting a losing battle. If that had went over it would have been a completely different game. It felt we were fighting a losing battle. It felt like we were just holding on.

‘I think we are better in a dog- fight. That would suit us a lot better. The lads always hurl; better when there’s a fight there,’ he said.

And so, it‘s Avondale in the decider, the third meeting of the teams this year. Martin knows full well what to expect from Emmet O’Sullivan’s side come Sunday.

‘They’re strong down the middle. Eugene Dunne at centre back, Eamonn Kearns in the middle and the ‘Fiddler’ (Ray Nolan) at centre forward. He played the first couple of games in the goals. He could have walked on to the county team at that stage he was playing that well. Then he came out and he’s flying. Doesn’t matter how old he is, the man’s flying. He is one of the older lads on the team, but you wouldn’t think it.

‘We’re just going to have to go man for man, forget who he is (the marker), go out to hurl and that’s it. Just play him. That’s it. Hopefully the weather is not too bad. We know we’re in for a big game. You see the scores Avondale have put up. We know we’re not going to walk this, but in saying that, I don’t see why we can’t win it. It’s 15 on 15, you have to mark your man and see where it takes us,’ he said.

What would a win mean for the Rocks?

‘It would be everything, the people in the club, the club needs it at the minute. We’ve been fighting, we came down from Senior four years ago.

‘We only fielded one team this year, for the first time in a long time, we didn’t even field a Junior team this year. There was talks of us going back and playing Junior, not playing Intermediate at all. For all the older players who played in the 70s and 80s, this would be brilliant for them, just to show that there is still hurling there.

‘We’ve the Geraldines playing football, they’re flying, we’ve three soccer clubs and the rugby club as well, big competition to keep lads playing hurling. To get 15 lads out on the pitch who want to hurl is not easy,’ he added.