![\"Daire](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4908407_1_articleinlinemobile_dan_20quinn_206.jpg\" "\\"Daire")
Daire Ryan shows his joy after Shandrum’s success. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\nGoing in as underdogs against holders Midleton, Shandrum knew they had to start well in Sunday\u2019s Co-op SuperStores U21AHC final.<\/p>\n
Once they did that, they never relented, even after Midleton came strongly early in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing honest, we’ve a lot of work put into this,\u201d said manager Willie O\u2019Mahony.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we had to start well \u2013 if we didn’t, we’d be whitewashed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read in the week that Midleton trained one day a week – we were training three nights a week. We worked hard all year \u2013 we had a disappointing senior campaign, but this is about building for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s massive for our village. We have two on the age, so there\u2019s a lot of them under-age again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the semi-final win over Valley Rovers, Shandrum operated with a two-man half-forward line and kept four attackers stationed closer to goal. Midleton were aware of that and the temptation might have been to try something different as a result but they stuck rather than twisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Midleton manager commented on it, the four inside and two outside,\u201d said selector James Bowles, \u201cso when we saw that yesterday, we said, \u2018They’re going to do something to counter-act it,\u2019 but it\u2019s a hard thing to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWillie O\u2019Mahony always says, \u2018The internet sensation is six-seven, Shandrum have four-two!’\u201d<\/p>\n
Daire Ryan shows his joy after Shandrum’s success. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n
They were rewarded with a first half where they never trailed, but nobody was going to rest on their laurels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings went right for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should actually have been up by more at half-time, we had more wides. At half-time, Tim [O\u2019Mahony] said if every fella gave an extra 30 percent in the second half, we weren’t going to be beaten.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys came up with the attitude that we weren’t going to leave it behind and we weren\u2019t <\/p>\n
coming for a moral victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we had a good performance in us, the way things were ticking along in training. They got the reward that they deserved, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
They had to earn it, though, especially after Midleton turned a four-point deficit into a three-point lead in the opening ten minutes of the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said that when the tide turns against us, real leaders will stand up,\u201d Bowles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be fair, Johnny Murphy stood up there; Rob Troy got on some amount of ball at midfield and Rory Troy, he was out for 14 weeks, it was only his second game back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added O\u2019Mahony: \u201cChris Dunne is a serious talent that many wouldn\u2019t know. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s a top-quality player. He goes under the radar, because he plays junior. They would have been targeting Turlough here, but we knew Chris Dunne inside was our danger man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the objective is to bring those players on further at adult level.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Newtown seniors next year, it’s a stepping stone to get out of the group next year,\u201d Bowles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDromina should be winning the north Cork championship next year. The fellas coming through, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t push on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going in as underdogs against holders Midleton, Shandrum knew they had to start well in Sunday\u2019s Co-op SuperStores…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-205157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}