The day Castlehaven’s luck ran out

KIERAN McCARTHY reflects on Castlehaven’s latest All-Ireland club semi-final defeat in Thurles

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‘THE thing about it is that I’d say it was one of our best performances ever,’ Jim Nolan noted in Saturday’s Irish Times when reflecting on Castlehaven’s controversial 1998 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Erin’s Isle. 

Semple Stadium is one of the many links between the past and present, the Thurles venue the stage on which Castlehaven’s hopes of a first All-Ireland club senior football final appearance died in 1998 and 2024, as well as 1995 – the Haven lost to Kilmacud Crokes here in the ’95 semi-final and also by four points. The score? 1-11 to 1-7, so similar to last weekend.

In ’98, Erin’s Isle late, late show floored the West Cork men who were six ahead after 59 minutes but lost by one, 2-12 to 0-17. Last Sunday St Brigid’s hit Haven early and hard, and led by six during the first half, and eventually won by four, 1-11 to 0-10, after a late flurry of scores. 

The woodwork also denied Castlehaven on both days. Keeping out Colin Crowley’s late effort in ’98 – and then there was Niall Crossan’s contentious ‘goal’ for Erin’s Isle. Haven were adamant it hit one post, then the other and rebounded out, but the goal was given. The Thurles woodwork played spoilsport again on Sunday, flicking away Jack Cahalane’s first-half rasper and then not blinking when Rory Maguire did what most backs do in that position: power, and plenty of it.

The end result was the same, too: defeat, dejection and disbelief.

Whereas, as Jim Nolan asserts, Castlehaven did everything within their power and still came up short in ’98, the current group didn’t hit the heights they are capable of last Sunday. That’s not to suggest a fully-firing Castlehaven would have got the job done, given the wow factor St Brigid’s brought to the first half, but there are enough what-if moments to make this loss linger. 

‘I don’t think we were at our best today, which is a small bit disappointing,’ captain Mark Collins admitted afterwards, as Castlehaven players tried to comprehend a first championship defeat in 442 days, stretching back to October ’22. A team that had forgotten how to lose was now surrounded by the silence that follows a defeat of this nature. 

‘I have no regrets,’ Collins continued, ‘we tried our heart out right to the very end, but the one thing that is disappointing is that we didn’t play to the standard we could have. I think we are every bit as good as them, to be honest.’

Castlehaven captain Mark Collins admitted they never hit their usual heights in the defeat to St Brigid's.

It’s too simplistic to join the dots and trace Castlehaven’s downfall back to the first 30 minutes, but gift-wrapping St Brigid’s a ten-metre headstart in a 100-metre sprint was always going to come back and haunt James McCarthy’s men. The Roscommon champs were full value for their six-point lead (1-7 to 0-4) after 26 minutes, and Haven were hanging on. 

This isn’t the Castlehaven we have become used to watching in recent times, the team that before Sunday lost only four championship matches in four seasons (2020-23) by a combined ten points, but this wasn’t the same Haven side that blew St Finbarr’s away in a county semi-final or outmuscled Nemo in the county final arm-wrestle. 

This Haven ship had started to take on water since surviving the chaotic Munster final played out in a storm pre-Christmas. Castlehaven will never offer this up as an excuse for losing to Brigid’s. They’ll acknowledge the better team on Sunday won, but they’ll not alone rue that sluggish start, but also how Lady Luck decided they had used up all their credit in the provincial final triumph against Dingle – that’s the game Haven never led in, but still won, in sudden-death penalties.

Michael Hurley recovered from the hamstring injury that forced him off against Dingle, but didn’t train since. Damien Cahalane also recovered from a hamstring injury, but pulled his calf muscle in training since; sporting a compression sleeve on his right calf, the Munster final hero didn’t exert the same influence against St Brigid’s. Conor Cahalane was another walking wounded, suffering a thigh injury in training, and he couldn’t kick or solo with his right leg on Sunday before being withdrawn late on. Haven also felt the loss of the injured unsung hero Jack O’Neill, who started all games in the knock-out stages in Cork and Munster; he suffered a foot injury in a challenge game with UCC. The casualties of war, Haven’s injuries came together. In the end, it was all too much – a poor start, missed chances, too passive for too long, injuries and niggles and a brilliant Brigid’s team bristling with confidence and class. 

‘We talked (on Saturday night) about getting a good start but it didn’t happen,’ Mark Collins explained. ‘We said if it didn’t happen, not to panic. We have been here before, been in even worse situations, but we tipped away. We were the width of a crossbar from going ahead. If Rory’s shot went in, it would have put us a point up in the second half, and we had all the momentum at the time. Small margins.’ 

No one can question the resilience of this Castlehaven team; think of their Munster final from-the-depths-of-hell comeback, and they almost did likewise here, dragging themselves to within one going down the home straight. Just when it looked like they’d pull off another comeback, Brigid’s regained their composure to fire off the last three points, condemning Castlehaven to a fourth All-Ireland semi-final loss. The wait for an All-Ireland final goes on, but they’ll know this was a great opportunity. All eyes were on Newry for the Kilmacud Crokes v Glen renewal, and while Brigid’s were the slight bookies favourites, Haven will always back themselves. Look at their journey to this point. Before Sunday, nine championship games, eight wins and one draw. One win by sudden death penalties. Another after extra time. Three wins by two points. Another by three. One by four. All tight margins. Taking down the Barrs and Nemo in knock-out football to win a first county in a decade. Haunting Dingle’s dreams over Christmas to win a first Munster in 25 years. This was an exceptional season, highlighting the heights they needed to hit to reach the last four in the country – and it’s a long, long way back to here. James McCarthy had spoken about this season being the culmination of a four-year journey, but it didn’t have the fairytale ending that had hoped for. Still, there were more than enough big days out to shorten the winter in Castlehaven, but there will also be those what-if moments, too.