THE sweltering heat made for testing and energy-sapping conditions at Páirc Uí Rinn, but that didn’t bother Carbery veteran Ruairí Deane in the slightest.

BY NOEL HORGAN

The 34-year-old stalwart’s pacey and purposeful surges were one of the highlights of the clash with Muskerry, and there was no diminution in his work-rate as the game progressed.

‘It was nice to play the game tonight, even nicer to get the win, and, for me, to get back on the horse after the season finished with Cork was grand.

‘It was good craic, but what else would you want to be doing, a bit of training or whatever, before the club championship starts,’ said the Bantry Blues man, who clearly enjoyed himself, and had good reason to feel satisfied with his own performance.

He did the spadework for Carbery’s first goal, and scored the second himself, but he was quick to acknowledge it was essentially an impressive team display that ensured the desired result was achieved.

‘In fairness to the lads, they put in a great shift, and we have two good wins behind us now, which is great.

‘We’ll drive on with the club next, and see what follows after that, but we won’t get an opportunity to play too often together or to train too often together.

‘Having said that, we’re building game on game, which is what you want,’ Deane remarked, adding that the performance against Muskerry was an improvement on what the team delivered against Duhallow.

‘Muskerry were tough opposition in what was a good free-flowing game, but whenever they came back at us, we kicked on again, and that has to be a good sign going forward.’

The honour of becoming the first player to collect the new Derry Gowen Cup fell to Carbery’s gifted attacker Damien Gore, who certainly played a captain’s part in attack.

The Kilmacabea man said it was very satisfying to win the divisions/college title for the first time since 2022.

‘It’s a straight knock-out competition, so it’s hard going, as we’ve discovered to our cost over the last few seasons, but we put in a good bit of work at the start of the year, and it’s beginning to pay off now.

‘We were involved in about five or six challenge games in March and April, and, while we don’t get to train together too often, I think the more games we played, the more we improved.

‘We’re one step away from a quarter-final now, and I’m hoping we’ll get stronger as the year goes on, because we have a few players to come back as well,’ he revealed.

Gore feels momentum is everything when it comes to making progress in any competition, so he’s obviously encouraged by the way the campaign has gone for Carbery so far.

‘We’ll be taking it one step at a time from now on, but if we get one or two more wins under the belt, you never know how far we can go,’ he remarked.