By Niall Gartland

FOR the first time since 2011, a team other than Mullahoran or Cootehill have got their hands on the Cavan Senior Hurling Championship title, but that alone doesn’t tell the full story of a seismic shift at the top of Breffni hurling.

East Cavan Gaels – whose catchment area centres on Bailieborough, Kingscourt, Shercock, Mullagh and Virgina in the eastern part of the county – created history last weekend by winning their first ever Senior Championship title.

Cootehill’s four in-a-row bid was thwarted on a scoreline of 0-15 to 1-9 and it’s a victory that all involved with East Cavan Gaels will savour long into the winter months.

To give a bit of backstory, the club was founded in 2009 and they only started fielding at adult level seven years ago. It’s been a meteoric rise in that respect and they reached last year’s showpiece final, losing narrowly on the day to Cootehill.

They took the final step on Sunday past and manager Adam Baldwin, a native of Waterford, says the overriding emotion was relief more than anything else.

“It was a very historic victory for us. We started at the very lowest rung seven years ago when we first fielded a senior team.

“We reached the final last year and were beat by a few points. That one really hurt so Sunday came as a massive relief to us, it was reward for all the hard work we’ve put in.

“It definitely wasn’t our best performance, perhaps there was a fear of losing and that can play on people’s minds, but the main thing is that we got over the line and got our monkey off the back.”

They celebrated their victory in appropriate fashion and why not – few would have imagined that this would ever have happened when the club was founded. Baldwin was keen to emphasise the commitment of his players, who spend a lot of time travelling to and from other clubs.

“I said to the players after the game to make sure to enjoy it. You never know what could happen next.

“They’ve certainly put in the effort, and we don’t have a pitch. That was our 15th game on Sunday, we travel for every game, there’s never a case of just walking down the road to a pitch.

“We spend as much time travelling to games as actually playing matches and it’s a big commitment so it just shows the calibre of our lads.”

Baldwin added: “The work the club as a whole has done is phenomenal. Just six years ago we were struggling to field a senior team, we had 13 adults and we weren’t as a good standard. They’ve made serious strides since and it’s a testament to the work that has gone in.”