THEY reached the county final in their first year up, but Courcey Rovers have struggled to build on their promising debut campaign in the county senior A hurling championship, reports Noel Horgan, after their 2-25 to 1-18 loss to Carrigtwohill.

The 2021 premier intermediate kingpins have claimed just one victory in the last three seasons, achieved in a group-phase clash with eventual title winners Newcetown in 2023.

Involved in a relegation final last year, it seems as if their fortunes aren’t about to take a significant turn for the better, as their hopes of qualification for the knock-out stages are hanging by a thread following the 10-point loss to Carrigtwohill in Páirc Uí Rinn on Friday. 

In order to have any chance of progressing, Courceys, who shared the spoils with Ballinhassig in round one, must come up trumps next time out against Inniscarra, victors over Carrigtwohill in their opening assignment.

Manager Michael O’Sullivan admits it seems a tall order, although he’s convinced his charges are capable of much better than what they produced against Carrigtwohill.

‘We were beaten by ten points, which could have been more, and we’re on the backfoot now.

‘This performance was very poor, we’ll wait and see how the lads react to it, but we have to believe there’s a lot more in us than what we showed tonight.’ he said. 

While Carrigtwohill made what proved to be decisive push towards the end of the third quarter, outscoring Courceys by seven points to one between the 40th and 46th minutes, it’s fair to say the signs were ominous for the Carrigdhoun men long before that.

That they were still in the hunt, trailing by 1-13 to 1-10, at half-time owed much to the heroics of goalkeeper Stephen Nyhan, who made five superb saves before the break when corner-back Darren Collins also denied Carrigtwohill a goal chance early on.

Courceys did make an encouraging start, with Nyhan, from a long-range free, Richard Sweetnam and Daniel O’Donovan, from a sideline cut, on target as they moved 0-3 to 0-1 ahead inside five minutes.

They led again, 1-3 to 0-4, after Sean Twomey did much to unhinge the Carrigtwohill rearguard, allowing Tadgh O’Sullivan to set O’Donovan up for a goal midway through the first half. 

O’Sullivan quickly tacked on a point before Matthew Barrett blasted in an equalising goal from a close-in free for the East Cork men, who didn’t fall behind after that. 

Again Courceys began brightly in the second half, with Sean Twomey and Tadgh O’Sullivan sharing a brace of points before Richard Sweetnam added another from a free, in reply to a converted 65 by Carrigtwohill’s Matthew Barrett, to make it 1-14 to 1-13 with 34 minutes gone.

Then came the Carrigtwohill purple-patch which put them firmly in the driving seat before substitute Daire Lordan, fed by wing-back Joe Harrington, ended a lengthy barren-spell for Courceys in the 48th minute.

A point from free-taker Richard Sweetnam followed to leave Courceys five adrift, 1-21 to 1-16, but Carrigtwohill finished the match in complete control, an opportunist goal by substitute Niall Harte embellishing their convincing win on the run-in.

In contrast to Stephen Nyhan, Carrigtwohill goalkeeper Shane Devlin didn’t have a decent shot to save over the hour when the winners accumulated 20 wides, ten more than Courceys.

All of which serves to underline how much Courceys need to improve in order to achieve the desired result in a do-or-die encounter with Inniscarra in round three. 

OUR STAR: James Mulcahy finished with nine points, eight from play, an outstanding contribution to Carrigtwohill’s triumph.

Scorers - Carrigtwohill: J Mulcahy 0-9 (1f); M Barrett 1-4 (1-3f, 1 65); P Walsh 0-5; C O’Riordan 0-4, D Nolan 1-0, S Rohan, L O’Sullivan, J Oke 0-1 each. Courcey Rovers: D O’Donovan 1-2 (1 sideline), R Sweetnam 0-5 (f), T O’Sullivan 0-3, S Twomey 0-2, S Nyhan (f), DJ Twomey, J O’Neill, M O’Donovan, D Lordan, D Cosgrave 0-1 each.

Carrigtwohill: S Devlin; B Twomey, A Walsh-Barry, P O’Sullivan; S Brosnan, S De Burca, D Murnane; J Horgan, J Oke; P Walsh, M Barrett, C O’Riordan; J Mulcahy, L O’Sullivan, S Rohan. Subs: P Hogan for Oke (52), D Nolan for Rohan (54), T Hogan for L O’Sullivan (59), Rohan for O’Riordan (injured, 62).

Courcey Rovers: S Nyhan; D Cosgrave, C Roche, D Collins; R O’Callaghan, M Collins, J Harrington; DJ Twomey, L Collins; J O’Neill, S Twomey, M O’Donovan; D O’Donovan, R Sweetnam, T O’Sullivan. Subs: C Daly for L Collins (38), D Lordan for O’Callaghan (44), C Crowley for M O’Donovan (47).

Referee: M Maher (St Finbarr’s).