*John Guilfoyle and Cian O’Rourke celebrate in Cusack Park. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
HAVING put in the hard yards, Cian O’Rourke was among the most satisfied men in Cusack Park after Wolfe Tones secured their return to the senior championship at the first attempt.
Fewer individuals played such a part in their one point win over Tubber on Saturday with Cian accounting for half of their scoring return on a day when he had one hundred percent accuracy from placed balls which saw him earn the man of the match award.
Their work with over 130 training sessions paid off as Barry Keane’s charges edged out Tubber to be promoted. “What an hour and a half, I’m lost for words a bit because in the last ten minutes you don’t know what is going to happen and you’re playing every ball, if you asked me what happened there I have no clue but we got there. For a club our size, everyone is saying you should be there but we went down deservedly last year because we weren’t good enough or up to standard but we’re back up next year and we’ve a lot of work to do but where else would you rather be after a hard intermediate championship”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cian said it was an extra special feeling to win with his brother John Guilfoyle as captain and his younger brother Oisin O’Rourke producing a fine hour between the posts. “When Oisin makes those saves I’m nearly jumping in celebration as if it was me scoring a goal, he had a bad accident and it hit hard for the whole family, he is lucky to even be hurling, he is a kind of lad who sleeps with his hurley. John then is coming in with a few grey hairs so if we lost today maybe there may not have been another chance for him. It is probably one of the best days of my life, I won’t lie to you, I’m so happy”.
Based in Dublin where he works as Brand Manager of Pan Euro Foods, Cian’s training on his own in the capital was referenced by Guilfoyle in advance of the game as an example of how the Tones made sacrifices and went further in their efforts this year. “My girlfriend is there beside me, she is nearly in the apartment by herself every second weekend so a lot goes into. I’ve a few friends and I’m doing a bit of training with St Jude’s and Round Towers, some of those friends were down here today so you’re like a hurling nomad, you’ve a few lads and you’re always hurling so it is a long year but it has been an enjoyable year, thank God it has been worth it by winning,” O’Rourke noted.
Tubber got a run of four points without reply to lead by a single score at half-time. Unlike previous years, the Tones dressing room remained very calm. “Last year and the year before there was a lot of roaring and shouting with ‘you did this and you did that’ but this year we pride ourselves on the protocol that we have so if we’re up ten points or down ten points we do the same thing. I won’t lie, there was a few lows and when you have Aaron Cunningham and Daithí Lohan going off when the game is still in the melting pot but there was no panic stations, there was no lumping high balls, we still tried to do the right thing, we made very hard work of it but we got there in the end so maybe it was meant to be”.
Prior to their relegation in 2023, Wolfe Tones contested senior quarter-finals in 2021 and 2022 where they lost to Newmarket-on-Fergus and Sixmilebridge prompting the corner forward to remark, “You gave some marking one of the times but we deserved to go down last year as I said, if you look at the club right now we’ve an intermediate football final, there’s a Junior B football final, there’s a U17 football final, there’s positivity, last year other than our Junior Bs it would have been a long cold winter, it is good, you can see all the kids here and that is what it is all about, Clare winning the All-Ireland I’ve never saw as many hurlers around the town since that, if we can get fifty percent of that with kids out hurling and get up from competing in C and B underage that is what is about, at least they have something to strive for at senior”.
