JUNIOR B FOOTBALL – The county confined junior B football championship is down to the last four and two of those are Carbery teams. Unfortunately, they are due to meet in the semi-final but it does mean that a Carbery team will contest the county final. Last weekend Carbery’s two representatives, St Oliver Plunkett’s and Goleen, scored comprehensive wins in their quarter-finals. Goleen beat Araglen by 4-13 to 2-2, while Plunkett’s proved far too good for Garnish on a score of 3-16 to 0-7. Their semi-final clash should produce a cracker of a game. In the second semi-final, Ballyphehane will play St Catherines and the city side, after a series of comprehensive wins, are fancied to win the title outright. Last year’s champions were Diarmuid Ó Mathúna’s, so a win for Goleen or Plunkett’s would keep the title in Carbery.
JUNIOR B HURLING – The county confined junior B hurling has reached the knockout stages with three Carbery teams still involved. St Oliver Plunkett’s will be aiming at a county double, having won Section B, while O’Donovan Rossa finished second. Gabriel Rangers won section C. Gabriels and Rossas are down to meet in the quarter-final in Bantry on Sunday next and with hurling promotion going through a difficult time in the west of the division, it’s encouraging to see these two clubs involved with Bantry as the venue.
CORK WIN – All football followers in Carbery were delighted to see Cork beating Mayo to grab second place in the section, guaranteeing a home game in the preliminary quarter-final. The team, under Haven manager, John Cleary, has been building towards this win all season and it was good to see West Cork players vitally involved. Ruairi Deane, Brian Hurley and Brian O’Driscoll provided half the forward sextet, while Maurice Shanley and Rory Maguire were outstanding in defence. Sub John O’Rourke again did very well when brought on. We were again highly impressed with O’Driscoll’s work rate but there is concern over Deane’s injury. The team will now meet Roscommon in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday at 2pm, not a great time for many supporters but this game is very winnable and the team has now earned good support.
COUNTY LEAGUES – Last weekend proved a busy one also for our senior, intermediate and premier junior football teams with the final round of the county leagues played off. In Division 1, Castlehaven finished fourth, out of the honours, and Carbery Rangers have one game left against Cill na Martra, which they have to win to avoid relegation. Division 2 was a real cliff hanger with Newcestown finishing second despite losing on Sunday to top team Carrigaline. Newcestown, who now contest the final and are promoted, pipped Clonakilty on scoring difference for second place. Clon, who headed the division for most of the season, needed to beat Clyda Rovers on Sunday but only managed a draw. O’Donovan Rossa finished fifth in the division. In Division 3, good news for the West as Dohenys finished in top spot, to win a final place and promotion. However, Ilen Rovers were relegated. In Division 4, Bantry and Bandon finished in sixth and seventh places respectively.
There was no Carbery team in Division 5 and in Division 6, Gabriel Rangers did well to finish in third spot. In Division 7, St. James were just outside the final places in third spot, while Argideen Rangers were safe in sixth. Dates and venues for the finals have not yet been released, depending on Cork’s further progress in the All-Ireland football championship.
The Carbery junior football and hurling leagues are due to conclude on July 16th, the top team in each division being declared winner, and we will look at those leagues in the coming weeks.
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