*The St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield hurling team. Photograph: Chris Copley
PAUL MADDEN is one of the most experienced players in the St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield hurling team and the goalkeeper is anxious to see the club regain their senior status.
Ahead of Saturday’s intermediate final against Tulla in Cusack Park, he remarked, “Tulla are a very proud traditional club, a physical side and we will have to be at our best if we are to win”.
A Garda based in Kilmihil, Paul has tasted the joy of winning and the disappointment of relegation from the top tier. They have been close to going back up to senior on a few occasions in recent years. After a couple of semi-final defeats, they contested last year’s final and went into that game as favourites but Smith O’Briens (Killaloe) held the upperhand on the day to devastate Doora/Barefield.
The team’s last line of defence, Paul believes that “whoever wins on Saturday will have to be at their best next year or else they could come backdown as we found out a few years ago. We have gained a lot of experience in the last few years and hopefully this experience will stand to us”.
He believes that the future is bright for the club which won the junior A title a few weeks back while the minors “were unlucky not to get over the line” when they played Clooney/Quin in the final, losing out on extra time. “We would be hoping that a lot of those players will come on and represent the club at adult level. The fact that the underage teams compete at A level bodes well for the future of the club”.
The Parish netminder believes that “there is a good mix of youth and experience in both clubs. Tulla have a very skilful forward line based on what we saw of them this year and if we are to have a chance on winning we will have to be at our best”.
“After the disappointment of last year when we were beaten in the final, the aim since the start of this season has been to get back to the final. Now that we are there we want to go another step. We were delighted to win this title in 2016 but two seasons later we were back down in intermediate”, he added.
Madden is one of a small number of players not involved with the club’s senior footballers who compete in the senior championship
“We are not looking past Saturday and we will be going out to give it our all and hopefully that will be good enough to get us over the line”, he added.
