Online Club Hurling Championship coverage brought to you by the Temple Gate Hotel—home to Chapter 24 Gastropub and Gate 96 Restaurant.
*Diarmuid Mullins captains Crusheen’s senior hurlers this year. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CRUSHEEN’s championship will commence against the reigning champions Éire Óg as they try to rewrite the wrongs of what was a disappointing 2025 campaign.
Gerry O’Grady made his first adult appearance for his native Crusheen in 1999, and after an astounding twenty-six years sporting the red and white jersey, he swapped it for the bainisteoir bib at the beginning of the year.
“It’s continuous learning, there’s nothing to really fall back on outside of what I suppose I would have learned as a player from different managers over the years, but as I work through the season it is a constant learning curve for me. It always will be, but it’s definitely a deeper learning curve in the first year anyway I think,” he told The Clare Echo.
Also in the role of club Chairman, O’Grady admitted that when the opportunity arose to jump straight into management his familiarity with the panel was a particular selling point. “What would have attracted me to volunteer to take the job on would have been the quality of the players and people that they are, that would have made me want to continue working with them. I felt last year was probably going to be my last year in terms of playing, it’s a good group of lads and that was probably the main thing that I wanted to stay working with them. I’m happy enough with how the year has gone in terms of working with them, from my perspective I think it’s going well, the players might say different”.
Beaten county finalists in 2023, Crusheen come up against the holders of the Canon Hamilton, Éire Óg, in their championship opener which should provide them with a sufficient idea of the level they’re currently at before they face off with Broadford and Scariff in the following two rounds. “Éire Óg are great county champions, they were really impressive last year, especially in the knockout stages. They won the quarter-final very well, came through a real battle in the semi-final and got out the right side of it, and then they probably controlled the county final for long periods, maybe the scoreline didn’t do them justice in terms of how well they won that match. For us it’s an opportunity at the very best team in the county to see where we are versus them, it’s a huge challenge and opportunity”.
“Scariff and Broadford are two very good teams in terms of the experience and the players they pose, especially with the young players that both of them have. Scariff beat us in the quarter-final in the league and were unlucky to not win that out, and they still have Mark Rodgers to come into their team, so they’ll be a formidable challenge. Broadford are a very good team as well and similarly have a lot of young players, you see Niall O’Farrell having a great year this year with the county and then Eoghan Gunning captaining the Under-20s team as well, with the likes of those they’ll be a challenge for us,” he added.
O’Grady, who was the Crusheen captain when they completed the back-to-back in 2010 and 2011, was inside the white lines last year as they failed to advance from the group stages. “It was narrow margins in two of them games, a lot went right in some respects last year, but we just came outside the wrong side of those couple of games against Sixmilebridge and against Clonlara. When we went back this year it was trying to make improvements or try and find improvements from what we didn’t do so well last year, we’ll see in the next few weeks if we’ve solved some of those problems”.
Breffni Horner is the blood and bandages’ most notable absentee ahead of the campaign, with defender Luke Hayes and Ian O’Brien also based in the UK. They have been boosted by the very recent return from Australia of Cilléin Mullins who had been abroad since their exit from last year’s championship.
Operating from a limited playing pool, O’Grady emphasised the importance of holding onto the core of their squad for such a lengthy period like they have managed to do. “It’s very important in terms of putting a team on the field that will be a test for anyone out there. There is probably an onus on all ends of the age spectrum in terms of the older lads staying playing for a bit longer, if there’s lads in the middle cohort in terms of age they’re maybe thinking of travelling or if they’re moving to different areas of the country that they’re still maybe making the effort to play with us, and then for the younger players to quickly step up and take the responsibilities. We have a small playing pool, but it is what it is, and you just have to get on with, for each of those age cohorts you’re just kind of pushing them and pulling them and encouraging them to stay involved to build that group. I think we’ve done it reasonably well in recent years.
“It’s very important to have the likes of Donal Tuohy and Cian Dillon in terms of the experience they bring, they’re both All-Ireland winners and bring that inter-county experience which helps with the preparation and leadership that they show, it’s probably almost a cultural thing of trying to be the best you can be and continuously pushing yourself. Cian and Donal really lead in that front, we’re lucky to have them,” he concluded
Crusheen Factfile
Management: Gerry O’Grady (manager), Colm Fitzgerald (coach), Alan Brigdale, Shaun Dillon, Daniel Liddy (selectors), Alan Griffin (S&C), Donal Wylde, Seán Culligan (stats), Tom Culligan (kitman)
Captain: Diarmuid Mullins
Key Player: Donal Tuohy
One to Watch: Riain O’Donnell
Fresh Blood: Riain O’Donnell, Alex Guilfoyle
Departures Gate: Breffni Horner (emigrated), Luke Hayes (emigrated), Ian O’Brien (emigrated), Gerry O’Grady (retired)
Treatment table: N/A
Titles won: 2 (2010, 2011)
Last season’s run: Failed to qualify from the group
Schedule of games:
Round 1 vs Éire Óg on Saturday July 25th in Gurteen at 15:00
Round 2 vs Broadford on Sunday August 9th in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg at 14:00
Round 3 vs Scariff on Sunday August 23rd in Dr Daly Park, Tulla at 13:00
Championship power ranking (1 = unlikely winners, 10 = strong contenders): 6
