Glen Rovers manager Tomas Mulcahy after their success. David Ribeiro
From The 42Champions
Three years after relegation, Glen Rovers are Cork senior title winners for the 28th time.
The 42
‘THE NIGHT THE Goat Broke Loose On Grand Parade’ – the anthem belted out from the winners’ podium on the South Stand in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Moments previously a green flare had been released in the middle of the pitch. A giant black, amber and green flag was also unfurled over a swelling crowd of supporters, that had rushed in to acclaim celebratory players.
Later on Sunday evening the Seán Óg Murphy Cup was paraded across the Christy Ring Bridge, marking a journey into the heart of Blackpool.
All these snapshots pointed to one conclusion – Glen Rovers are back at the summit of Cork top-tier hurling.
It ended a 10-year wait to get their hands on the trophy they craved. That 2016 success came 12 months after a momentous breakthrough, which drew a line under a lengthy absence from the winners’ enclosure that stretched back to 1989. If that 2015 victory marked the end of their personal sporting famine, this latest win carries serious weight on its own.
It may have only been a decade without this title, but consider what Glen Rovers have experienced in the interim.
They lost three county senior finals on the spin – held off by four points by Imokilly in 2019, defeated by eight after an extra-time classic by Blackrock in 2020, and coming up short by three against Midleton in 2021.
A harder setback arrived in 2023, the Glen suffering relegation from the top flight of Cork hurling for the first time in their history, their slide confirmed in Fermoy with a loss at the hands of Kanturk.
They rebounded the following season to win the senior A (second tier) championship in Cork, and took their place at the top table once more in 2025. That campaign culminated in a quarter-final showing. This season has brought progression. An opening group stage loss against Blackrock was overcome to emerge from the round-robin on scoring difference, before knockout stage wins were secured over Charleville, Midleton, and a joyous conclusion against St Finbarr’s.
Hurling heritage is never far from the Glen Rovers conversation. That was reinforced by the knowledge they had defeated St Finbarr’s for the first time in a senior final since 1967, in what was the first decider between the two powerhouses since 1988.
Tomás Mulcahy’s playing career was decorated with achievements in Cork county colours and Glen club colours. Thirty-seven years after captaining his club to this title, he achieved that feat as a manager.
“It feels wonderful, to be honest with you. Look, people wouldn’t realise stuff what has gone on over the last two or three years. We pride ourselves an awful lot on our hurling in the northside.
“There’s an onus on a lot of us former players, former officers, people within the club to actually keep the traditions, keep what went before us. People talk about the history of the Barrs and the Glen. That tradition is so important for us to keep all that alive, and it means so much to us all.
“Getting the win today is just immense, and it’s immense for a bunch of lads that are there because they were in the dressing room in Fermoy, when we lost to Kanturk and we were relegated. People said we wouldn’t be back again, we were finished as a club. You had a lot of older generation in your team and you had nothing to look forward to. I stuck in there and I didn’t believe that.”
How did they rehabilitate themselves in the space of three years since their darkest hurling day? Robert Downey, their defensive powerhouse, assessed the journey.
“It was definitely a reassessment of everything. I wouldn’t be slow to admit that as players we allowed standards to drop – in our training and in our preparation. I suppose we started losing games that traditionally we would have been renowned to win. In fairness to Tomas Mulcahy, when we went down he brought in Tommy Dunne and he drove things on.”
Tipperary All-Ireland winner Dunne was not the only source of expertise they tapped into. Donal O’Rourke, who has steered the Cork and Waterford camps in recent times, was drafted in as coach this year, while Ian Jones, the Cork S&C coach, fills that role with Glen Rovers as well.
“The club game has gone to a new level now – it’s gone almost like intercounty,” says Downey.
“You need to be ticking every box. So we had Donal O’Rourke, Ian Jones, Peter O’Keeffe, along with four or five other brilliant Glen fellas. We always have this mentality that we think we’re going to win no matter what sort of a team we have. We just kept believing.”
The team was infused with youth as well, products of successful minor teams. They still leaned on their old-stagers. It proved a potent mix. Consider the scoring returns on Sunday. On one side there was player of the match Eoin O’Leary shooting 2-2 and midfielder Rhys Dunne grabbing 0-3, emerging brightly on their first county final day. On the other side was Patrick Horgan racking up 0-11 and Dean Brosnan chipping in with two, an attacking duo that have experienced all the club game has to offer.
Horgan and Brosnan were joined by Cathal Hickey, Brian Moylan, and David Noonan as players who got game-time on Sunday, and started back in the 2016 victory over Erins Own. They all savoured collecting their third medal. There was some redemption at this venue as well, the site of county final pain that included a thrashing against Sarsfields in 2014. The successive 2015–16 victories had been claimed at nearby Páirc Uí Rinn.
“We had a lot of young talent coming through, and I think this year was about giving those guys an opportunity,” said Mulcahy.
“I know people will talk about the Downeys and they talk about Hoggy and they talk about Micheál Mullins, but like I got to talk about some of the younger guys.
The likes of Eoin Varian corner-back, Luke Horgan, Conor McCarthy, Rhys Dunne midfield, Eoin O’Leary, Lee Quilligan. We had six, seven, eight guys that have come through that underage platform and they got their chance. That’s the important thing for us. There’s a lot to build on. We’ve a couple of young Brosnans coming in there as well.
“It’s a fantastic feeling. It’s incredible for the older generation. Patrick (Horgan), Adam Lynch, Brian Moylan, what a guy, broke his collarbone earlier on in the year, comes on there today. Dean Brosnan, I mean every county final he has a good day out, and no different again with some sweeping points. Cathal Hickey was just immense, the saves he made were just incredible.”
For Downey this represented a personal breakthrough. Full-forward in the 2017 All-Ireland minor final for Cork, he swiftly graduated into the senior ranks for club and county. Establishing himself as an anchor in Cork and Glen Rovers side, there has been a succession of heartbreaking final experiences – three All-Ireland losses with Cork and the same number of senior defeats with the Glen.
“It wasn’t a great week now I have to say. Maybe I was bigging it up to be more than what it was. I lost three county finals and there are loads of other fellas in there, it’s not just me, that lost three.
“We got relegated and came back up and you’re thinking will we ever get over the line?”`
They got there in first place. St Finbarr’s had been the inferior side early on but grew in strength, illustrated by the impact of Brian Hayes, to lead at the break by two. Glen steadied themselves, bagged the crucial second-half goals from O’Leary, and Downey, along with his brother Eoin, managed to quieten the considerable influence of Cork team-mate Hayes as the game wore on.
“This team loves the battle. You have to pay a huge amount of credit to the Barrs as well. It’s an honour to be involved with the Barrs in a county final. We were all reared on stories, as were the Barrs lads as well.
“I have some unbelievable friends on that team, some really close fellas. Look, there’s probably no love on the field, but off the field there’s massive respect there. And we wish them the best as well next week in the football game.”
Glen Rovers will have their own upcoming assignment, a Munster opener against Clare champions Inagh-Kilnamona in a fortnight. That will be considered in time, but for now there is an appreciation of the feat of their current group.
“It’s number one, it’s not even a debate, to win with your club is absolutely everything,” said Downey.
“I’m so grateful, so proud to be a Glen man. When you’re driving in the gates of the Glen club, everyone lives and breathes it. It’s all about the Glen and the jersey and what it represents and the people that went before us.
“And I know it was a long time ago, and we probably harp on about the past an awful lot, but as a group we wanted to create (and) write our own bit of it. I’m just delighted.”
Written by Fintan O’Toole and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.