AIDAN McCarthy enjoyed a productive first season in charge of Clann na nGael, including reaching a Carbery JBFC final. For his second season at the helm, he drafted in club stalwart Brian Deane as joint-manager.
Ironically, Deane, in his role as club secretary, was the man who brought in McCarthy as the Scorchers’ new manager.
Now, the Drimoleague club find themselves in the McCarthy Insurance Group Confined Junior B FC semi-final where they face city side Ballyphehane on Friday in Ahamilla (7.45pm).
Ballyphehane beat Clann na nGael in this competition’s semi-final last year (2-13 to 2-10) and revenge will be on the Carbery team’s minds.
‘We got very close last year and it’s a big challenge. Ballyphehane got to the last two finals but we had a great game against them last year – that was one of the best games I’ve seen at this level or have been involved in,’ Deane told The Southern Star.
The city side lost the last two finals to Goleen (0-11 to 0-9 in 2024) and St Oliver Plunkett’s (1-10 to 1-9 in 2023). This year, they have put the big scores on teams, beating Garnish (6-15 to 0-9), Belgooly (2-17 to 1-9) and Glengarriff (5-11 to 0-10).
Clann na nGael have won all three of their games so far, against Brian Dillons (0-13 to 0-8), Muintir Bhaire (0-11 to 0-8) and Ballincurra (1-9 to 1-7) but this will be their toughest test yet.
‘We’ve seen in the last two county finals, they got very close to winning the whole thing out, so they mean business. We measured ourselves against them last year. We were very young and inexperienced last year, and that experience will hopefully stand to us. We were very raw last year,’ Deane noted.
‘In hindsight, they had the experience to take their chances and we didn’t make enough of the opportunities we had that day. This is a huge challenge, but we have the same ambition – when you’re in a semi-final, you want to go all the way.’
The West Cork side has been building a good panel with underage successes and panel numbers massively helping. Off the pitch, they are doing pretty well too.
‘We have a good panel. Anything we have asked the panel to do in training, they have done. They are backboned by the U21 team that won the West Cork in 2022 and the junior C team in 2023 too,’ Deane said.
‘We have a great balance there between youth and experience. They are a great panel to work with. We had 38 togging out some days towards the end of the year. We’ve dropped off a bit from that but we’re still getting around the mid 20s per training. Everyone puts their shoulder to the wheel in fairness to them.
‘It’s been a good year off the pitch as well. We had a really successful fundraiser between ourselves and Drinagh Rangers which has lifted the prospects of the club going forward and helped to clear the debt that we had in building our new clubhouse. We’re in a healthy situation off the pitch and we’re hoping to replicate that on it.’
