By John Harrington

2017 will always be a red-letter year in the annals of Kanturk GAA club.

Winning the Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship to ensure they became the first ever club from the Duhallow division to be promoted to the Cork Senior Hurling Championship was impressive enough.

But to then also win the Cork Intermediate Football Championship with more or less the same group of players marks these Kanturk men out as a very special group.

Cork hurling goalkeeper, Anthony Nash, was one of the few players on the hurling team not to also be involved with the footballers, having decided to focus exclusively on hurling two years ago.

And having been at hurling training sessions where only a handful attended because of football commitments, he keenly appreciates the loaves and fishes miracle that Kanturk have pulled off.

“It’s unbelievable,” Nash told GAA.ie. “I suppose you'd always dream of doing it but couldn't believe we'd actually do it. The biggest thing with us is that we have, I think, 12 of the starting football team had played hurling.

“So we've a crossover, we've a tiny panel for both. We've like 30, 32 players that actually cover both codes.

“Coming up to the county hurling final, two weeks beforehand, the boys were getting ready to play football so I'm one of the non-footballers and we'd five at training, which is incredible when you look at it.

“We're very lucky this year that we've Jim McCarthy from Glen Rovers came down to coach us and Jim opened his arms completely to the dual. He said no problem at all this is the way the club is.

“That fed into the players. There was no arguments. He worked with Jerome Walsh, Aidan's uncle, as football manager. The two of them worked very well together and we balanced the two.

“It's the best year I've ever had with the club, it's unbelievable. The talent was there the last few years. We came of age really this year. We were in county semi-finals in hurling before but I don't think we were ready but this year we were, thank God.”

Nash will be between the posts on Sunday when Kanturk go head to head with Clare champions Kilmaley in the AIB Munster Intermediate Club Hurling Final.

Having made his club debut all of 16 years ago when Kanturk were still a Junior outfit, the thought of playing in a match of such significance is almost a surreal one.

“Yeah, I started 2001 in the Junior," said Nash. "I was nearly late for the match, the first one I played because I was on the Cork minor hurling panel, I was sub goalkeeper.

“We played the Munster final against Tipperary on the Sunday and that evening Kanturk had their first junior championship match of that year. I had to come down, take the jersey off the fella who was going into goals, and go in.

“I was 16 and to go senior with Kanturk is incredible. It won't sink in I think until the draw is made, which will be tough enough as it is. I just think that when I retire and maybe look back and look at it and the stages we've gone through, it's pretty incredible. The fact that we've won two intermediates in Cork.”

Nash has played a key role in the strides forward the club has made in recent years, and not just through his performances on the pitch.

His deeds in a Cork jersey have clearly inspired a new generation in the town because the team is well stocked with young players who you can be sure dreamed of emulating Nash when they were kids. The club's underage set-up is also thriving. 

That sort of credit doesn’t sit easily on Nash’s shoulders though. He thinks his fellow Cork county hurler, Lorcán McLoughlin, is the man who has had a bigger impact on Kanturk than any other.

“Look, I can't speak highly enough of Lorcán,” said Nash. “He was the chairman of the juvenile board last year.

“He's the epitome of Kanturk, him and his brother John. I could go through the whole team but I think everyone in Kanturk would realise the two McLoughlins have been immense for us and the effort they've put into the club.

“We built the gym a few years ago and John was the driving force behind it. It's fellas like that. We played Mallow in the county final, the keeper made a save from a penalty, I came up to take it and I must say - I'm not patting myself on the back - it was an incredible save.

“The initial reaction, I was gutted, and the ball broke to Lorcán. I couldn't have picked a better man in the field and he put it over the bar. He's been like that for years for Kanturk. To have him to look up to is incredible.”

Kanturk have been impressive on the way to Sunday’s Final, beating Tipperary champions St. Mary’s and Kerry champions Ballyduff.

The bar will be raised on Sunday though by a Kilmaley side that reached the 2015 Clare Senior Championship semi-finals before suffering a shock relegation in 2016.

They won the Clare Intermediate Championship at the first time of asking this year, and Nash knows they’ll be formidable foes on Sunday.

“We won in Cork and a fella came up to me after and said, 'Look I don't know how ye're going to prepare for the Munster championship, whether ye want to give it a go or not, but if ye are to take it seriously, it is going to be Kilmaley ye'll be facing, they're very, very good’.

“Apparently it was a huge shock in Clare that they got relegated and they're supposed to be rated one of the top five teams in Clare at any grade. So we're under no illusions.

“Getting to a Munster final for the club, we know we're going in as huge underdogs. But isn't it great to say that we're there. There's a great buzz and it won't be for the want of trying.”