Galway champs ‘lick wounds as Larkin’s lads cut loose

Pride. It was an emotion that Ray Larkin referenced more than once as he reflected on another momentous day in the history of Tooreen – and Mayo – hurling.

The first dozen years of the Connacht intermediate club hurling championship saw a Galway name on the trophy every time. In the eight seasons since however, the best intermediate club in Galway has six times had to bow to the men from where the devil once stood. Even he couldn’t have withstood the heat applied by Tooreen at Dr Hyde Park on Saturday as they steamrolled past Meelick-Eyrecourt to regain the title they had surrendered at the same venue twelve months earlier.

“Losing to Tynagh last year, we were bitterly disappointed. We bottled that pain and came back again today. It was a long year to get back to where we are,” said Ray Larkin after his side’s 3-21 to 2-12 victory.

“I didn’t even know there was twelve points in it until I looked at the scoreboard.

“They’re a great bunch of lads, a fabulous team. All we can do is get them right and it’s up to them to hurl. But I’m really proud of them,” the manager said.

Tooreen were looking good to win a fifth straight Connacht title last season when leading Tynagh-Abbey/Duniry by four points at half-time, but they malfunctioned somewhat in the second-half. But whereas that opposition was only recently relegated from the senior ranks of Galway hurling, Meelick-Eyrecourt were still basking in the glow of winning a first Galway intermediate title since 1997.

“We’ve been here before and that experience probably stood to us,” admitted Larkin.

“We played Meelick-Eyrecourt in a challenge game before, we’ve played many senior teams in Galway, Clare and everywhere, and these guys just love hurling. They don’t fear anyone. So I’m really proud of these lads and really happy for them to win that today.” 

On the back of a narrow and slightly fortunate victory over Ballyhaunis in the Mayo SHC final and a Connacht quarter-final where they had to withstand a late fightback by Four Roads of Roscommon, if doubts lingered about Tooreen’s credentials as they jetted off to play London champions St Gabriel’s last Saturday week, they certainly never permeated into the squad itself. Having beaten Gabriel’s by two points in their first meeting seven years ago, this time they had 22 points to spare.

“People were saying we weren’t playing our best and that the performances wouldn’t beat Gabriel’s or the Galway champions, but within ourselves we knew we had the ability to win,” Ray Larkin insisted, declaring boldly about his players that “When they move that ball fast, there’s no team in Ireland that will beat them.” 

It’s to be presumed he meant at intermediate level, which in itself does bring a level of pressure given that Tooreen are just one more win from a return to Croke Park - and two wins from becoming the first Connacht club outside of Galway to win an All-Ireland hurling title at any grade.

“They’re like a fine-tuned team, they just need to be released and get out and get going.

“I think the Gabriel’s game really brought them on a good bit. They knew they could do it. It was bottled up and they released it. It gave them belief coming into today, that they were still well able to hurl.” 

Tooreen now await the winners of next Sunday’s Ulster IHC Final between Lisbellaw St Patrick’s and Éire Óg Charraig Mhór, of Fermanagh and Tyrone respectively. Neither a hurling stronghold as Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh might have said. And it was Ulster opposition that Tooreen defeated on their way to the 2023 All-Ireland final which they lost so agonisingly to Monaleen of Limerick.

“We’ll have the lads well-tuned,” assured Larkin. “We’ll give them a couple of days off now, there’s a couple of sore boys there. They’ll be out celebrating tonight but we’ll be back on the field by Thursday and our main focus after that will be the Ulster champions. We won’t look past that.

“It’s great to still be hurling,” he added.

That it surely is.