How Castlehaven made a splash after ‘winter of reflection’

BY CATHAL MCGRATH

IT has been a decade since Andy Scannell spent the winter with Castlehaven. This Sunday the Haven have the chance of bridging that 10-year gap when they face Nemo Rangers in the Bon Secours Hospital Premier SFC final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (3pm).

‘It hurt losing to St Finbarr’s last season in the semi-final, we didn’t perform,’ says Castlehaven manager James McCarthy. ‘The winter was a time of reflection, that's for sure. When you lose a semi-final like we did, it’s a long road back, your back into the group-stage and start all over again. I decided to give it another year, I freshened up the management team and there has been a good buzz all season.

‘People were writing us off after the last campaign saying that we were slipping, but we knew we had young lads coming through and we wanted to build a stronger panel in 2023. Were the young lads good enough and were they willing to put in the effort? We found that out very early on. Everyone has stepped up.’

The league was a mixed bag for the West Cork side, a positive start which yielded five wins on the trot ended with four defeats on the bounce. Alarm bells would have been ringing in a lot of clubs, but not for Castlehaven, according to McCarthy.

‘A lot of teams train hard for the league as they are afraid to go down and we are no different. We did tweak it a small bit this season with how we approached it. If you're playing semi-finals and finals over the last few years it’s hard to go back early for pre-season. We didn’t train hard in the first few months of pre-season, we tried to aim more so for the summer and it has worked so far.

‘It was funny with how it panned out as we won our first five games which I wasn’t expecting. We were safe from the drop so we blooded a lot of young lads and it has stood to us in the championship. The likes of Seán Browne and Jack O’Neill in particular have benefited. We used about 30 players in the league.’

Castlehaven’s championship results since the first group game against Carbery Rangers, which ended in a draw, have been impressive. No great surprise really given the quality available. They are bubbling along nicely.

‘We knew it was always going to take time to gel everyone together when the championship started as we had lads returning from holidays, returning from injuries and we had nine players with the various Cork teams and they came back at different stages. We drew with Ross in the first group game, we showed bottle that night before wins over Valley Rovers and Clonakilty. We came out on the right side against Ballincollig in the quarter-finals, before meeting St Finbarr’s in the last four.

‘We delivered a super performance and a reflection of how far we have come in 12 months by winning by two points. It was great for the bunch of lads to get over that step, but there were no medals handed out that day.’

Nemo Rangers now provide the opposition for the Haven in the final, a familiar pairing in the decider, and McCarthy is under no illusions about the size of the task facing his side.

‘This Nemo team is class. Their record in finals speaks for itself, they have won 23 out of 27 deciders. We beat them in 2013, but they defeated us in 2015 and 2020. To get over the line we will have to be at our level best and more and for Nemo to be a small bit off.’