A goal of Brian Hayes’ for 2025 – besides the obvious one – was consistent Cork involvement. The body obliged, and so did his hurling.
Cork played 14 competitive fixtures this year. Hayes started all 14. He finished all seven championship outings.
His first time seeing his corner-forward’s number flash up on the fourth official’s board was two minutes from the end of their Round 5 League win over Kilkenny. There were only two other occasions where he didn’t last the distance, with one of those – the Round 7 steaming of Galway – injury-enforced.
A goal ticked and several more goals tallied. 5-8 on the road to League ribbons. Another 5-8 on the road to All-Ireland final Sunday.
Four days after that nightmare final Sunday, Hayes was back out training with the Barrs footballers. Six days after the nightmare final Sunday, Hayes was lining out in the opening round of the local football championship.
The body obliged no more. A quad injury forced him off seven minutes from the end. He was given a four-to-six-week recovery timeline. He was back in three.
The body co-operated and then it didn’t. Introduced with a quarter of an hour remaining in the Barrs’ second group outing of the hurling championship, he hurt his hamstring.
Cue another spell on the sideline. The earlier consistency in red was frustratingly absent in blue. And besides the opportunity to pitch a tent at Electric Picnic, Hayes saw little upside to the pause in his once-busy game schedule.
His latest recovery timeline was six weeks. He was back in five for the Barrs’ hurling quarter-final against then champions Imokilly. The sharpness sustained. He struck 1-1 and assisted another major. He was in similarly wrecking form when the Togher outfit sank then football champions Castlehaven a week later.
There was a minor knock carried from the hurling semi-final into the last-four football clash with Ballincollig. Nothing sinister, mind. And so in this week 49 of his 2025 season, and with the body once again obliging on the eve of the Cork football decider, the 24-year-old is happy to reflect on a year that has seen him nominated for hurler of the year and might yet deliver a third county medal.
“It is hard to look at it from a personal point of view. Obviously the aim at the start of the year is from a team perspective and to win medals, but look, I hadn’t a medal at the start of the year, and if it was all about winning on All-Ireland final day, that is not why we do it because you have four sessions a week for the whole year, a long year for us since November, so it is not all about the final weekend.
“Obviously the final was disappointing, but to win a League medal and a Munster medal, and one thing I targeted was to stay fit and try and play as much as I can. I was involved in every competitive game for Cork, so that was something I was happy with. Regardless of performance, just being available and constantly training.
“The more practice you get, the better you get, and when you are constantly training and playing matches, it’s lot easier to know what you have to work on. From that point of view, I was definitely happy with the year.”
The switch from having to so quickly park inter-county disappointment to picking up the club flag was unlike his maiden experience of these blurred lines 12 months earlier.
“It has happened twice now at this stage, so hopefully it is something we are not getting used to. It was a lot different than last year because there would have been a lot of expectation on ourselves, and also outside the camp, but not that we would read into that.
“I know it was a bit of a hindrance at the time playing football championship six days after losing an All-Ireland, both physically and mentally. An event like an All-Ireland final, it is draining emotionally. But it was great to come back into a dual club that has the aim of winning both counties, and great to have your best friends to pull you back into it because obviously it is a tough time.”
Hayes was a Cork senior footballer before he became a crowd favourite for the hurlers. His football call-up was inevitable after a series of outstanding midfield and half-forward performances in their run to 2021 county football glory.
It was the first of four finals – three county, one Munster – he’d lined out in across 12 rich months draped in blue.
“We went from thinking you are never going to win it to thinking you are going to be there all the time because 2021, 2022 were two great years. Three long years since. It would be great after the way things have gone this year to finish off on a high.”