“Listen every game I play, I go out with a chip on my shoulder” – life as a Monaghan hurler and historic All-Ireland final

Peter Treanor is well used to it at this stage.

All's going well, his first sharp is as any of them and then he's asked where he's from and things change. Being a hurler from county Monaghan, they're the conceptions you have to face every time you take a step outside of the county with a hurley in your hands but the Castleblayney man absolutely relishes the doubts and he welcomes the doubters. Every hurler from the so-called weaker counties knows the feeling - sometimes, they look down at you on purpose, sometimes it just happens naturally and unintentionally but every single time, lads like Peter Treanor use it as a fire to line their bellies.

“Ah yeah but you kind of expect that too, but I get a buzz out of going out and trying to prove people wrong, listen every game I play, I go out with a chip on my shoulder," he says to us ahead of the AIB All-Ireland junior club hurling final.

Going to college is obviously one of those situations. The first training session - county players from Kilkenny, Tipperary, Cork and so on are the big dogs. 'Oh you're from Monaghan...' He attended St Pat's Drumcondra, a former hurling stronghold before they were taken over by DCU and though the general, initial doubts were there about a hurler coming from Monaghan, he'll never forget how the great hurling men of Dóchas Éireann - men like Tom Fitzpatrick, made him feel welcome.

"Lads obviously have a few ideas that a lad coming up from Monaghan wouldn’t be much of a hurler but I think I surprised a few of them…”

Kilkenny hurler Enda Morrissey was a year above him in Coláiste Phádraig and with the elders taking charge of the freshers and the college's teams, Treanor will always remember the Bennetsbridge honesty as a teammate. Morrissey, second from right in the back row on the St Pat's Mater Dei Fitzgibbon team in 2014.

“I really enjoyed mixing with the lads down the country and getting the chance to play with him, He’s from Kilkenny (Enda Morrissey) and he’s a Kilkenny hurler but there are no airs or graces about him or any of the other lads.., he’s so down to earth."

Treanor's grá for hurling started well before his Pat's foray though, in the fields of 'Blayney' on Sunday mornings.

“I just wanted to play myself, there wouldn’t be much of a tradition in my own family...But what got me started in the hurling was Noel McGuigan - a hurling legend around Castleblayney - I would have went to school with his son, so he was basically just getting everyone into playing hurling...Himself and Mickey Byrne, I remember going down to their training sessions and

And though football will always be number one in Monaghan, the Castleblayney hurling captain sees no reason as to why players can't pursue both - as himself and his brother both have. Though there's still plenty of work to do for hurling in Monaghan to improve. thinking about that myself during the week, the club is at its highest peak, up in Croke Park here...But on the wider scale, you’d be codding yourself if you said hurling in Monaghan was in a great place...Last year, two clubs amalgamated so they could field at senior level...A couple of years ago, another team stopped fielding teams at senior level, but on the whole it’s not great...there are a few signs there so hopefully us getting here will help to get it going more. Grateful because this Sunday, him and his clubmates will line out in the club's first ever All-Ireland hurling final, when they take on Kilkenny champs Dunnamaggin in Croke Park. No doubt they'll give it their best shot anyway.