No retreat, no surrender
April 30, 2011Six intermediate semi-finals appearances and a place in the final over the last nine years is Turin's record as they continually end up as the bridesmaid of hurling.
The majority of clubs would just lose interest and the necessary effort wouldn't be put in, but this is certainly not the case in Turin as each campaign that passes the more determined they become.
In 2009, they lost out to St Brigid's in the county final, their first appearance there since 1997, and although they struggled during parts of last year's campaign, the determination remains to do well and lift the intermediate title.
Last year, James Heffernan managed the side and he was assisted by James McGrath, Paul Reville and John Heffernan in the role of selectors. The latter spoke to 'Maroon & White' about the 2010 campaign and what the hopes were for the forthcoming campaign.
The format for the intermediate championship has remained the same for the last few years with one group of six and the top four going through to the semi finals.
The draw for the intermediate championship meant that Turin would face two of the favourites in the opening rounds Delvin and Crookedwood, which was a tough opening sequence by any stretch of the imagination.
Turin began their campaign against old rivals and neighbours Delvin. Clashes between the sides have been generally close in recent years and this match was no exception as just four points separated the sides at the final whistle, but the spoils went to the Delvin men on a scoreline of 1-9 to 1-5.
However, John revealed that despite getting hard to find their rhythm early in the season, this was a game that they could have and probably should have won.
"We certainly had our chances against Delvin and it was a case of the same old story of not taking our scores when it mattered," admitted John. "It was hard to get things going last year, having lost the county final in 2009, but in saying that our first few games could have gone either way."
Even though John stressed that it took a while to get the squad motivated last year, their performance against the 'Wood suggested that they had lost none of their spirit and determination.
It looked as if the 'Wood would cruise to a comfortable victory as they led by ten points at the start of the second half, but Turin dug deep and scores from Derek Hourihan and Alan Aughey closed the gap, but time wasn't on their side as they narrowed the margin to a single point (1-10 to 1-09) by the final whistle.
"The Crookedwood game was a strange one in that we played very poorly for the first half and then dominated the second. We probably should have at least got a draw out of this one and maybe even have won it, but we knew from before the draw was made that they would be two tough opening matches."
Two defeats out of two meant that Turin were under pressure to qualify for the knockout stages of the championship and a meeting with fierce rivals Clonkill was next on the cards.
It was a must win game for the reds, but the fact that they had up to five players missing through injury did not help their cause. Nonetheless, they once again showed the determination that they have become renowned for and produced their best display of the year so far to edge out their neighbours in a thrilling encounter.
A special mention must go to goalkeeper John Gorman who produced three excellent saves near the end of the match to help ensure a victory for Turin on a scoreline of 3-9 to 1-12.
"It was great to get the first win of the campaign and to beat our neighbours and rivals was even sweeter. The lads always seem to lift their game against them and even though we had a good few injuries, we managed to play very well."
Confidence had returned to the Turin squad and a second win of the campaign was achieved against Cullion when the sides met a few weeks later. Cullion put it up to Turin for long periods of the match, but Heffernan's charges edged through to a 0-12 to 0-7 win to move them up into a place for the knockout stages.
"Cullion are a team that we never beat too easy, but we always feel that we can. It was important to pick up that second win to make sure we had a chance of reaching the semi finals."
The last group game saw the reds play Fr Dalton's and this was another close match with the Ballymore outfit shading it by 0-12 to 0-08, but a place in the semi finals beckoned for both teams.
"We were delighted to make it through to the semi finals as we hadn't really been firing on all cylinders and to be fair the lads really knuckled down for the few weeks before the semi final and a huge effort was put in."
The hard work almost paid off as Turin and Delvin produced arguably the best game of hurling in the intermediate championship that year. Scores were plentiful from both sides and even though Turin managed an impressive tally of 1-15, Delvin registered 2-17 to advance to the final and leave Turin heartbroken for yet another year.
"It was disappointing to lose another final, but in fairness to the lads they gave it their all and just came up short at the end. 1-15 would win most games, but not in this case and to their credit Delvin went on to win the championship."
As we enter yet another campaign, John stressed that Turin once again would be going all out to win and revealed that they would be more determined than ever to lift the county title.
"We have Jimmy O'Grady training us this year and his record in the intermediate grade speaks for itself. He has been here three times and won three championships, so the onus is on us to keep that record going for another year."
John admits that emigration has rared its ugly head within the club as a couple of their players have been forced to go abroad in search of work.
"Kevin Gilroy has gone to Australia and Derek Hourihan is in England at the moment. They will be a big loss to us if they're not back for the championship, but you can't blame lads for heading off. We do have Andy Corcoran home and he will be a major addition this year."
For the past few years, the club has placed a greater emphasis on their underage structure and John admitted that they are beginning to reap the benefits of that.
"We are two years ahead of schedule with the underage and by this I mean we didn't expect to be fielding under-14 and under-16 teams for another couple of years, but we will be doing so this year. We set up a nursery where the four to six year-olds come down and we have about 20 kids in that group now.
"It is a well known fact that we have a very small catchment area to pick from, but thankfully more and more kids are deciding to play with us and hopefully we can continue to encourage more to play."
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