Éire Óg captain Liam Corry believes the success that the club’s footballers achieved last season in lifting the Jack Daly Cup is helping the hurlers this year.
The Townies are in the unusual situation whereby the club have ended a 22 year wait for a Senior Hurling final appearance but yet they still possess a fair degree of experience after the footballers managed to end their 15 year wait to lift the Jack Daly Cup in 2021.
Corry feels the success experienced by Paul Madden’s side last year has helped instil the extra belief and confidence amongst the hurling fraternity within the club.
“The main lads in that football panel are the main lads in that hurling panel too. We have played with them all the way up so we work together all through the years. It’s unreal to see them win. When you see your colleagues from the same club winning it makes you want to win even more so it has given us belief.”
The captain believes the accumulation of near misses in recent seasons has helped his side gain a level of experience that allowed them to stay composed during the club’s memorable semi final showdown.
Sixmilebridge surged clear at the end of normal time before Shane O’Donnell’s late goal helped force extra time with Éire Óg subsequently powering through.
“We have been trying so hard every year and you are trying to incrementally step up and get a further step up the ladder.
“We’ve just been training hard and doing what the manager tells us. Obviously, you’ve had a couple of new lads in and they are training away so they are really stepping up and we are driving each other on. We are feeding off the success of the football too as well because we are all part of the same club.”
The 28-year-old can be classed as an experienced campaigner with the teak tough defender admitting the game has changed with Strength and Conditioning now something every club is trying to optimise.
Corry believes that the hard work with the club’s academy is bearing fruit as he feels the younger generation are more equipped than ever before to make the step up to senior.
“What you would notice is the supreme fitness of a lot of the players coming through. When I came through; if you compared it to the lads my age to the guys that are coming through now, they seem to be in far superior shape than what we were in. You can see the work they’re putting in underage and the training.
“They are coming in savagely skilful and able to get to the pace of the game and the physicality of it and you need that because all the other teams are always increasing their strength every year too.”