Rob Downey firmly focused on the Glen following Cork disappointment
Pictured at the launch of the championship season with Clubber is Rob Downey (Glen Rovers, Cork). Clubber is covering live championship matches for 15 county boards this season, with more than 2,000 live matches set to be streamed this year. To find out more, and to get your Clubber subscription, visit clubber.ie
Click here to listen to the full interview with Glen Rovers and Cork senior hurler Rob Downey.
By Cian O'Connell
"It was disappointing," Rob Downey reflects on Cork's All-Ireland SHC Semi-Final loss to Galway lost month.
Downey, an influential figure for Glen Rovers and Cork, was eager to embrace club activity locally following the conclusion of the inter-county campaign. "The overriding emotion for the couple of days after the game is one of disappointment, but we were quite lucky that the club championship was coming up in two or three weeks time," Downey adds.
"We were ready to go back in with the club, to change the focus. To give yourself something else to focus on, to get back into a bit of routine.
"So, they're big games, and they're big losses. They take a while to get over, but we're quite lucky to get back in with the Glen, and into the swing of things."
Dealing with setbacks is crucial according to Downey. "I'd be quite good at parking at," Downey says.
"Obviously, you'd be looking back and trying to learn things from it. Stuff you can bring into the following year.
"I'd be quite good at parking it, and it is what it is now. We can't change it. On the day Galway were deserving winners, in fairness to them. They played brilliantly, we can't take that away from them."
The Glen lost to Blackrock in their Championship opener so a vital match against Kanturk beckons on Sunday. "We lost to Blackrock, it was disappointing," Downey says.
Cork's Tomas Mulcahy in action during the 1990 All-Ireland SHC Final. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
"Again, Blackrock were deserving winners on the day. We'd have been disappointed with a few things that we'd worked on coming into the game, but it was the first round and all of that.
"We've a huge test coming up on Sunday against Kanturk. They're a great team. They'd a good result in the football last week, they're very fit and athletic. They're a big side.
"They relegated us three years ago. When we got back up the following year. So, we know what we're going in against."
Glen Rovers manager Tomas Mulcahy served club and county with distinction as a player. Mulcahy's passion for the Glen cause endures. "Tomas is brilliant, he lives and breathes the Glen," Downey replies.
"In fairness, since he took over, he has been brilliant - really professional.
"The guys he has around him have bene very good, too. He took over when we got relegated and we got back up with him. Tomas would be old school, but he's well able.
"He allows the guys he has brought in with him to do their job and he does his job. So, he'd have been one of the guys you'd have been looking up to a bit when you were younger.
"Obviously, he has been there and done it with the Glen and Cork. He has been brilliant and he's a great fella to have on board."
