Niall McCarthy was in dreamland after his club Carrigtwohill claimed their first Cork SHC title in 93 years at Pairc Ui Chaoimh yesterday.

Relegation candidates for the past couple of years, the east Cork club defied all the odds to beat CIT in a novel county decider. For long-serving county star McCarthy, it was a dream come true to win a senior championship with his club.

"It's hard to sum that up as words couldn't do justice to what was an unbelievable day. In the first round this year we played Ballinhassig and only won by two points. They went down intermediate and we ended up in the final," he said.

"There was only ever a puck of a ball in any of the matches, we won three of our games by two points and another one by three. We used to be up in the stand there at county final day over the last few years saying, 'Wouldn't it be great to be out there?'. Suddenly we were there and had to take the opportunity with both hands. We knew if we didn't win today we might never ever get the opportunity again, you could find yourself down intermediate as quick as you'd be in a county final."

McCarthy credited Lismore, Co. Waterford native James O'Connor for turning Carrigtwohill's fortunes around this year.

"Everybody pulled together this year. We got a manager in from Lismore, James O'Connor and he was very professional. Everybody works their socks off, he won't tolerate anything less than 100 per cent from anyone. He's unreal and it's only a matter of time before he becomes an inter-county senior manager. We just bonded this year and fellas would die for each other out there, I don't think that was the case a few years ago. No matter what CIT scored today, there was no way we weren't coming back." Tweet

Most Read Stories