Dohenys keen to avoid relegation scrap

BY DENIS HURLEY

THINGS are looking up for Dohenys after a tough few years, but manager Tim Buckley is keen to ensure that nobody gets ahead of themselves, either.

The Dunmanway club are in senior championship action on Saturday evening as they take on Aghada in Ovens at 6pm. They have lost just one league game so far this year and the club’s U21 side are into the Carbery championship final following a seven-point semi-final win against Clonakilty at the weekend. 

‘We’re happy, but you have to take these things in context too,’ he says.

‘We’re in Division 3, so we’d have been expecting to do as well as we are doing. Everybody is all rowing in together and with the U21s going well too, we have fed off that.’

In 2014, Dohenys needed victory against St Vincent’s in the relegation play-off to preserve their status while last year St Nicholas were overcome after a replay to ease worries.

As with this year, 2015 brought a first-round tie with Aghada, who themselves ended up in the mire last year before beating Clyda Rovers. In such a landscape, this is a game where both sides will be targeting victory.

‘It’s only natural, I suppose,’ he says.

‘We’ve both been involved in the relegation battle, maybe five out of the last seven years combined, so it’s bound to have been in the minds of both clubs, it’s just a coincidence then that we’ve both ended up being drawn against one another.

‘We haven’t really scouted them, we’re focusing on ourselves. We feel that if we can get that right and play well we’ll be satisfied to some degree and hopefully that’ll be enough to get a good result.’

While Daniel O’Donovan and Maurice Murphy are unavailable, Dohenys have 11 of the U21 panel togging out on Saturday, including Cork trio Mark Buckley (Tim’s son), Eoin Lavers and Seán Daly.

With a divisional final against Castlehaven or Newcestown to come, ensuring that the players playing in both grades are not overworked is key.

‘It does, it has to be,’ Buckley says.

‘It’s a difficult task but because of that it has to be the strongest focus.

‘Rest is a hugely important part of all of the preparations, but it’s fantastic to be busy, everybody buys into it. Once you get over one game, everybody is mad for the next one.’

To that end, they are bolstered by a good backroom set-up, with Buckley assisted by Kevin Crowley, Donal O’Sullivan and Brendan Farr while former Cork star Micheál O’Sullivan is coach and current county player Colm O’Driscoll has assisted with fitness.

‘We have a very good management team,’ he says.

‘It’s great to have someone like Haulie involved, he has had good success with Clonakilty Community School and with his own club Carbery Rangers. He’s able to take a helicopter view of the situation.

‘Colm O’Driscoll has had a huge input too, we’ve done tremendous work with him over the winter in terms of strength and conditioning.