RORY Porteous has vivid recall of the day Lisbellaw won the Ulster Club Intermediate Hurling title back in 2012.
As a teenage substitute who never got to taste the action, he was smitten, and a seed was sown as he looked to a future filled with success.
But it has taken nine years for the Fermanagh club to get back to a provincial decider, with Porteous as their leader and team captain.
“I looked at those boys winning that, and obviously now getting to captain the team is really special.
“We want to emulate what those boys did in 2012, there’s a few of them still playing and they know what it takes, and we want to reach those standards again,” he said.
"As a youngster, it was brilliant. A lot has changed in that time, the squad has changed an awful lot, but the club is a special club.”
A resounding victory over Eire Og of Tyrone in Sunday’s semi-final at Clones highlighted the potential of the Erne champions.
An incisive attack cut through the Carrickmore defence to pick off 1-10, with just three points conceded during a dominant second half.
“We know what we have in the team, the players we have up front especially. They can do damage to any team we come up against.
“The first half, similar to last week, we didn’t quite click.”
However, the St Patrick’s skipper was less than satisfied with a first half that ended all square at 0-7 each.
“We were happy that we weren’t too far behind, but we want to be starting the next day a bit better and playing the full 60 minutes, because the forwards we have, we’ll damage anyone, if we play the way we did in that second half.”
They’ll be looking for a more complete display against Banagher in the final, and Porteous is confident they can find the improvements required.
“I still think there’s more in us. But Carrickmore are a tough, tough team, and it was a battle.
“The scoreline maybe flattered us a wee bit, and we want to be improving as we go in the final in January.
“We’re only going to look at the next game, no further, but there’s more in us, that’s all I’ll say.
“We need to keep pushing, keep improving, and there’s always things that we can work on.”
He’s one of a handful of survivors from the 2012 squad, but young blood has brought freshness and new levels of competition to the team.
“If you look at the age spread of our team, there’s a lot of young boys that have come through together, and stepped up to senior hurling together.
“You can see them now getting to the speed and the physicality of it, and that’s why I’m so confident that there’s more in us, because these boys are still improving and still not close to where they can get to.”
In a county where hurling is a minority sport, Lisbellaw have been accustomed to being crowned county champions virtually unopposed.
But the game has received a shot in the arm with a couple of recently formed clubs, which Porteous hopes will raise standards and test his side.
“A lot of years we kinda stood alone in Fermanagh hurling, but there’s two new adult teams now and young players coming through underage. We want to shine a spotlight on Fermanagh hurling and keep improving it."
