"MY ROCK," coach Bernie O’Connor calls him. "If there is any one man on this team I could absolutely not do without, it’s Pat Mulcahy. A fantastic player, and a fantastic individual."

Bernie tends not to talk up the contribution of his brilliant twin sons, Jerry and Ben, and that’s quite understandable. The further Newtown have gone in this road to highest club honours, the more the focus tends to fall on two of the most exciting hurling talents in the game.

But this is no two man team, and others, such as the Morrisseys, McCarthy, Noonan, Naughton, Griffin, and King, have all played major roles in the games to date.

With only so much public acknowledgement doing the rounds, their manager would like to see some of the plaudits being deflected from his boys, and on to some of the unsung. However, that is not the case with Pat Mulcahy. When Bernie calls him "the rock" on this young Newtown side, he is absolutely spot on.

From his centre back position, the elegant 25 year old controls much of what happens, pulls so many of the strings in this well orchestrated sideHe’s tall, gangly even, but that long loping stride is so deceptive, as he covers sideline to sideline with consummate ease, drops deep when he has to, and always, every game, finds time and space to join the attack.

Even more deceptive are the hands; not whip fast, like most of the best in hurling, but they don’t have to be. No matter the tightness of the situation, with that unorthodox but ambidextrous grip, he always finds the space to get off the delivery. And usually, it is a delivery, to a specific target. "Erins Own are a bit like ourselves", Mulcahy believes, "but they’re a bit more established, in that several of that team were there when Erins Own won the county in 92."

"The younger fellas they have then all have Cork minor experience, and probably the main reason Cork got to an All Ireland hurling final this year was because of the Erins Own element. "They’re an extremely talented team; go right through their team, and you could nearly name them all, one to 15, all with Cork experience at some level or another.

"With Newtown, only John McCarthy and myself have senior medals, from the Avondhu success, but we do also have some very experienced players. However, I would like to think our strength is in our team, how we work for one another. "A lot of our players have never played for Cork at any level, but it’s through sheer hard work and commitment that we’ve got to where we are now. We have a great belief in ourselves, and most of that is due to Bernie. He gets us fit, physically fit, but I think his main strength is that he gets people right upstairs - no point in being physically fit if you’re not mentally fit with it"

No one around this team wants to hear any talk of small club, big achievement, in terms of reaching a county senior final, not until the whole thing is over anyway, and hopefully, they have it won. "But Pat does recognise that in small clubs, talent will often come in waves, a generation of talented youngsters, all around the same age, usually with several sets of brothers."

And that is very much the case here, with the O’Connor brothers, and two younger siblings of his own also in critical slots, Donal as captain, 21 year old Brendan one of the youngest full backs around. "Every small club has lulls," he says. "We were very strong in the 50s, down in the 60s, strong again through the 70s and early 80s. Then there was a lull again, but we’re back up now." "Who knows, but we could be down again in five or six years time. No one knows. Nowadays, fellas are heading off to Australia, the States, Europe, for a year or two, or fellas give up for various reasons. It’s getting harder and harder to keep teams together."

"Winning, I think, has kept this group together. Bernie coached Brendan’s age-group, Ben and Jerry, those lads, and they won everything up along. Every year, they were playing out into October, November, and starting again then in January/February. I genuinely believe that’s what kept them together, and that’s the bones of this team now. John Griffin and John McCarthy are 28, Ian Kelleher and myself are 25, Donal is 23, and the rest are from those successful underage teams. When that wave of talent comes, you must take full advantage, because lord knows when it will come back again."