James Kennedy's patient approach paying off for Charleville

A second win of the season, again on home turf. Charleville’s performances have been very promising so far in the RedFM Hurling League Division 1.

There’s a long still way until the championship rolls around, but they’ve got a lot to be pleased with. Manager James Kennedy has taken a patient approach focussed on squad building.

And that very approach is already rewarding the north Cork side.

“There’s no point going too well too soon,” he said, after their victory over Douglas. “There are still three or four months before a ball is pucked in championship. We’re all about building – looking to improve on each performance and today was a big improvement from the last day and we’re happy with that.

“We’re getting bodies back, but it’s still early stages in the league,” Kennedy explained. “We’re looking to try lads – we’ll make a few changes again the next day, give lads game time, and just keep looking to build.” 

IMPROVEMENT

One player who has seen a good chunk of game time this year is Gareth Gleeson. The forward has been steadily improving from his first appearance as a substitute against Blackrock.

From there he started against the Barrs, got a point in a start against Carrigtwohill – before bagging a game changing 1-4 against Douglas last weekend.

“Gareth was outstanding today and has been all year actually, the strength in depth in our squad – we’ve a really strong panel this year,” he said. “A lot of younger lads coming in, Robert Carroll really good wing back, Zach Biggane with the Cork U20s played the first half, he was really good as well. We’re trying to give all these younger lads game time.” 

That panel building has been forced upon Charleville in some ways, with Darragh Fitzgibbon the notable absentee due to his involvement with Cork, and Jack Doyle out with injury – though there is hope he’ll return soon.

“Jack is out with a hamstring injury at the moment, he did it in the first 10 minutes against Carrigtwohill, we’re not sure yet when we’ll have him back – we’re hoping to have him in the next couple of weeks.” 

The result itself was a big boost for Charleville – particularly since they managed it without the services of Doyle.

“Look it was a super second half performance, our energy levels and our intensity really went up in the second half.

“We were still quite happy with our first half – we created a lot of chances, just our execution wasn’t there. 

But it really went up in the second so we’re really happy with the second half performance.

“The last day [against Carrigtwohill], we were a bit off – we still had chances to win the game there towards the end we just didn’t take them. But we drove on today, we asked the lads for a reaction from the last day and we got that.”