THERE was no way Mark Sugrue was going to miss Bandon’s latest shot at county glory.

One of the survivors of the club’s 2016 county final triumph, he knows better than most the journey Bandon hurling has been on since, so he put his body on the line in their latest quest for silverware.

In a recent challenge game, the 33-year-old suffered a hamstring tear that had threatened his involvement in the intermediate A decider against Aghada.

‘I hurt it in a challenge game so had to go and get it strapped. I was under pressure for the last two weeks. I went to Liam O’Reilly in Innishannon to help sort it out,’ Sugrue says.

He was never going to sit out this showdown with Aghada.

‘I went through a good bit of pain the first week of it, I won’t lie. When I tore it, I was thinking, “Jesus, we’ve only two weeks. I don’t think I’ll make it.” But the lads reckoned going to Liam would work, and it did, to be fair.’

Before Sugrue came off at the three-quarter mark on Saturday, he felt the same hamstring creak under the pressure.

But the pain has been drowned out by the celebrations that have followed their county success.

‘It’s sore enough this week but there are plenty of weeks for recovery,’ he quipped.

This was a triumph not to be missed.

He points to captain Mike Cahalane, who was under pressure with an Achilles niggle. But these Bandon men were always going to dig deep, given how close they were to a county title.

Ten years ago, Sugrue scored three points when Bandon beat Fermoy in the premier intermediate final to earn senior status. Heady times for the club. But relegations from the senior A ranks in 2021 and premier intermediate in 2023 sent Bandon down to the fourth tier.

Now they are moving up again. Their county intermediate A victory will see Joe Burke’s men back in the premier intermediate grade next season – this title and promotion mean a lot, especially to the class of 2016.

‘It's massive for the club. Obviously, it’s a totally different team now, and I think there are only four of us left from 2016 – myself, Darren (Crowley), Mike (Cahalane) and Peter (Murphy).

‘To be honest, we’ve had a good few bad years. The main reason was that we lost so many of the senior players in one go, and then the younger fellas were coming in. They probably should have been playing junior hurling first, to try to get up to the standard, but they were thrown in at the deep end, so it was really tough for them.

‘Our group of lads are superb, though. We’d have a minimum of 30 people training every night, hurling and football. Even one night there, we had 40 at training. Our junior hurlers went well this year too and could have reached the Carbery junior A final. That’s all encouraging.’

Bandon's Mark Sugrue in action.

Sugrue hopes this title win can be a platform for even more success in the years ahead. While he’s part of the experienced group, he sees huge potential in the younger generation who have stepped up.

‘I hope this can be the start of something,’ he says.

‘Darren is the oldest at 37, and there’s myself and Peter at 33. Mike is 31. The rest are under 30, so hopefully there will be another few years in them.

‘Look at the younger fellas. Cathal Lynch at wing-back, Conor Calnan, who got man of the match the other day, has been superb all year for us, and Tim Twohig at full-back.

‘We’ve two younger lads who have joined us in the last two years. Jack Cullinane chipped in with four points against Aghada. Denis O’Mahony was at wing-forward – he’s only 19, just finished his Leaving Cert in June and he was starting every game for us this year.

‘It’s important to have players coming through. We have that now. Maybe there were a few seasons when we didn’t have that, but things have worked out now over the last few years.’

It hasn’t all been plain sailing either. Bandon lost this county final last season by a single point to Aghabullogue. That stung. But they regrouped and went again this year, going undefeated throughout the championship.

‘About two weeks after last year’s county final, Mikey Power, our S&C coach, put a message in our gym group saying, “Lads, I’ll be doing Monday Club tomorrow night. No pressure on anyone, but if you want to loosen out the legs.” So, two weeks after losing the county final, there were a good 15 or 20 lads down there with him. We had one quick meeting after the final and that was it. There wasn’t really anything more said about it, to be honest,’ explains the Bandon Grammar School teacher who appreciates how important this county win is for hurling in his home town.

‘If you drive through the town now, the flags around the place are incredible. I don’t think there was even this much hype back in 2016, when we were in two county finals, to be honest. The numbers in the GAA seem to be flying it as well,’ he says.

‘When things weren’t going as well, Joe (Burke) stepped in to take it over there three years ago. Those lads are up in the GAA seven days a week. His young fella is playing underage.

‘They organised this year to meet the players before a training session, to get a few signatures and photos. We trained on a Monday when it was lashing rain, but they still all showed up.

‘You have to give massive credit to Joe. He has been incredible. He got our S&C coach involved, Mikey, who lives and breathes it. Then the stars aligned when Niall O’Halloran left the Cork set-up. We needed a coach within a few weeks and somehow Joe managed to convince him to come in with us. It obviously worked out.’

Ten years separate these county hurling final wins, but there’s a silver lining if you look for it – county titles are hard won, so need to be celebrated and appreciated when they arrive. Twelve teams started the championship, but only one can win.

‘I started playing at 17, and we won a county hurling title in 2011. You were thinking “we could win this every year”,’ he recalls.

‘Then we won in 2015 and won two (hurling and football) in 2016. It felt like it was never going to end, that we were going to compete every year. But having gone through so many relegations – and it wasn’t for lack of effort, things just didn’t click for us – it was pretty sweet on Saturday evening.’

That feeling of success afterwards was one Sugrue has waited for. That’s why he wasn’t going to miss Bandon’s big day.