A WEEK AFTER lining out together in the All-Ireland hurling final, Jamie Barron and Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh were on opposing sides as the Waterford SFC kicked back into gear.
“Brick was flying around, no fear of him,” Barron says. “It’s good to just get back at it. You can’t spend too much time wallowing and thinking about what’s gone. It’s all about the next game and the next day and just keep going and keep pushing on.”
Walsh’s Stradbally defeated The Nire, sending the losers into a nine team play-off for a semi-final place. It only added to Barron’s hectic schedule, which is complicated by his involvement with Fourmilewater in the Waterford SHC and UCC in the Cork SHC.
Barron has still a realistic chance to win three senior county titles this year, something that would be an incredible achievement.
“(We’re) still left in them all anyway at the moment but things can change very fast,” he says. “Just enjoying it all. It’s grand to be playing up in UCC.
“You can really enjoy that one when you’re just with the lads that you’ve been in college with. There’s not much pressure on us at all. We turn up and we play and that’s it, you can really enjoy playing up there.”
The UCC team is a star-studded side featuring inter-county players Mark Coleman, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Colm Spillane (all Cork), Tom Devine and Conor Gleeson (Waterford) and Michael Breen (Tipperary).
“We’ve a lot of county players I suppose yeah. I think when you can get them all together is probably the hardest thing.
“I think the way that the club is probably a bit later now being played off, the lads that are out of their own club at home and actually have the time to invest in UCC, so that’s actually been a big benefit to us up there.
“Conor’s in the exact same boat as me, sure we travel everywhere together. The two of us get on great sure, best friends.
“I think Conor loves it as much as anyone, he loves playing and training, obviously it was massive disappointment that he didn’t get to play in the All-Ireland final. But he’s back stronger than ever now and he’s playing away and really enjoying it.”
It hasn’t been all rosy for UCC, whose participation in the competition has been criticised by Cork forward Patrick Horgan.
“That’s up to the Cork county board, I suppose I don’t think UCC have won one since 1970,” Barron says in response.
“It hasn’t been an issue every time we’ve been beat. I suppose when a team gets together like we’ve got together now and we’re trying to take scalps like Midleton and Sars, who we’re playing in the replay, I suppose people sit up and take notice then and start giving out.
“We’re only playing the ball we’ve been given. That’s all we’re doing and we’re enjoying it up there and we’ll continue to do that for as long as we can.”
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