Following their massive Junior Hurling Championship final win over Kilclief, Castlewellan captain Eoin Maginn has explained that self-belief played a big part in ending their long drought of senior success. The club had not won the JHC title since 1999, and in the interim had at times struggled even to field teams.
In recent years, however, hurling in Castlewellan has grown stronger. Last year they reached the county final but lost to Ballela, and Eoin said going one better this year was simply a matter of giving an extra push.
“We knew we had it in us; it was just a matter of putting the jigsaw of pieces in the right place. We knew we had a big performance in us.”
Castlewellan were dominant in the county final on Friday and didn’t give Kilclief a chance to get going. In the end, they won by 5-14 to 0-9.
Eoin said, “It is special, especially for this group. It is a photo on the wall. That was something that was mentioned a lot in our changing room this year — we wanted our photo on the wall in the club. We are over the moon to get it.”
He added that the result was an important one for the whole club. “Castlewellan haven’t had silverware in a long time. It was 1999 when they last won the Junior Hurling Championship. Before that, the senior footballers won the Senior Championship in 1994.
“So it was nice to put smiles on people’s faces. It was nice to go into the club after winning and see the U16 players, the younger generation, as well as the older generation like Dick Luby. It was nice coming in with the trophy compared to other years when we had nothing to show. But no matter what, people always supported us. It was nice to give something back.”
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