The County Senior Hurling Final was the last thing on Andy Moloney’s mind when the whistle blew for full-time at Walsh Park on Sunday, June 9th. The last thing.
Standing amongst his players after their 1-21 to 4-06 defeat to Abbeyside, the Ballygunner manager was forced to contemplate what many would have thought unthinkable: a potential relegation battle for the men in red and black.
“We were in dire straits, to be honest,” Moloney told The Munster Express ahead of Sunday’s SHC Final against neighbouring Passage.
“We got three goals in the last few minutes of that match, so the final score didn’t really tell the true story of that game. Abbeyside were excellent; they were 17 points ahead of us before we got those goals, and they’d deserved that lead.
“Losing that match left us knowing we couldn’t afford a single slip-up after that; it effectively put us into knock-out Championship hurling two matches before the actual knock-out stage began.
“The thought of fighting relegation wasn’t something we’d been gearing up for when we first got the panel together earlier in the year, but that’s what we found ourselves possibly facing into, and we knew, as a group, both players and management, that we had to knuckle down, and start winning. And that’s exactly what we did.”