{"id":308091,"date":"2026-01-28T14:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308091\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:13:11","slug":"we-had-a-special-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308091\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We had a special bond’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cork minor footballers claimed All-Ireland glory in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of their key players and was considered a rising star at the time was Nemo Rangers’ Patrick Campbell.<\/p>\n

He played in the forward department seven years ago in Croke Park when the Rebels defeated Galway in the final on a scoreline of 3-20 to 3-14.<\/p>\n

He would though switch sports when after completing his Leaving Cert, Campbell opted to play rugby over GAA and joined Young Munster before moving on to the Munster senior panel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the All-Ireland is one of my fondest memories in my sporting career,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a special campaign against the odds having lost to Kerry in the Munster final. We got the goods in the end in terms of going all the way. We got great confidence from our performance against Kerry. We lost narrowly that day having lost heavily to them in an earlier round.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t play Kerry again before the All-Ireland campaign, it could have gone a bit differently.<\/p>\n

\"CorkCork players Darragh Cashman, Luke Murphy, Jack Cahalane, Conor Corbett and Patrick Campbell celebrate in 2019. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople kind of rallied behind us and inspired us especially after the Cork U20 footballers won their All-Ireland a few weeks before us. It brought great joy to people around the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always quietly confident in ourselves and what we were capable of. Many people were surprised that we did go all the way, but in pre-season, we were beating teams from all over the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a special bond and we knew our capabilities. We knew that on our day, we could be the best team in the country and we proved that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campbell is currently playing rugby with Ealing Trailfinders in London having left Munster midway through last year.<\/p>\n

Growing up though, GAA was always the number one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must have been around four or five years of age when I was introduced to the GAA,\u201d the now 23-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy cousin would have played with Nemo Rangers and my dad was always keen for me to play with them. I idolised my cousin and wanted to be a footballer. I was alright at the hurling but preferred the football.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying with Nemo Rangers was my childhood dream and I have nothing but fondness for the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was combining the GAA and rugby and I enjoyed that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campbell was tipped to be one of Cork football\u2019s future stars when he was part of the All-Ireland minor success in 2019, but he had a big decision to make.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PatrickPatrick Campbell of Munster scores his side’s first try despite the efforts of Conor Oliver of Connacht in 2022. Picture: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a match against Glanmire and it was the last football game that I played.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very tough decision. I actually originally picked GAA over rugby and the day after, my dad said that I had one opportunity to play professionally whereas the GAA will always have your back and will always be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no regrets, I do miss the GAA though.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just part of life. Hopefully down the road when I hang up the boots from playing rugby that I can go back into the GAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am enjoying my rugby career at the moment and have made great memories in recent years, but without a doubt, part of me does miss playing GAA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cork minor footballers claimed All-Ireland glory in 2019.\u00a0 One of their key players and was considered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-308091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115973141520161443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}