O’Brien delivers for new champs

THE cold late October rain splattered Cusack Park, while the darkening clouds re-filled, ready to liberally dispense yet more water. The sombre skies and the prevailing climatic conditions passed unnoticed for the restored champion Blues.

Hurricane Sandy, which struck the US on Monday, could have veered by Ennis last Sunday evening and nobody from Newmarket would have flinched. Theirs was a celebratory storm, made more intense because they had to hurl for more than 370 barren months before eventually digging out a 23rd championship to put alongside the 22 won between 1912 and 1981.

 

While driven Newmarket men delivered in every corner of the County Grounds, corner-back Eoin O’Brien can hold his head as high as any in his native parish this week. O’Brien kept tabs on Cratloe corner-forward Cathal McInerney with such precision that the U-21 All-Ireland final man of the match didn’t notch a single score. Remember, McInerney had hit 6-7 on route to the final.

“You think of both sides going into a final, you think of winning and you think of losing but you never imagine that it would be as good as this,” the 24-year-old Newmarket corner-back reflected as the joyous outpourings roared on unabated.

“We’ve been waiting six or seven, and for some people 31 years, for this. It’s hard to put it into words. Tomorrow, Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll start thinking about it properly. For the players, for everybody who hasn’t been with us for the last couple of years and for everybody who has played for the last 31 years; I know it’s a cliché but they’re the most important people,” O’Brien added.

Winning relatively recent minor, U-21, junior A and senior B championships hinted that Newmarket must have had the players to deliver another championship but until they did it on county final day, those victories stood alone and could not be said to have contributed to winning Canon Hamilton.

“You can look at it in one way in that you lose so many games that the stigma can hinder you but this year we tried to use our losses and the reasons why we lost as a positive. We brought that hurt and that performance today has been coming for five or six years,” O’Brien said.

Playing the county hurling final on a winter’s day ensures that it’s not merely about delivering upon the skills of the game. A winning team must out-work their opponents and show that they want it badly. Newmarket did that although Eoin O’Brien detected a steelier player outlook all year.

“It’s very easy to talk about work rate but to put it into practice is another thing. Things were different this year. Never mind about management or supporters. Things were different this year with the players and you just can’t beat winning,” he smiled.

About to head for Newmarket as the evening closed in, O’Brien was keen to enjoy the days ahead and soak up what winning the 2012 championship meant to the people of his parish.

“Tonight will be about talking to people around the village who have seen hurling long before I was playing or even long before Padraig Kilmartin, who is the longest on the panel, was playing. It’ll be for them as much as anyone,” the match-winning corner-back concluded.