St James’ footballers excited by new challenge in county series

ST James footballers are gearing up for a significant first on Saturday afternoon – their first game in the new Cork Premier Junior Football Championship.

The 2022 Carbery JAFC champions take their place in the new county championship, and are in Group C with Kinsale, Millstreet and Kilmurry. Exciting times for St James and their player/manager Alan O’Shea.

‘It’s a new league, new championship and it’s nice to be out of Carbery and playing different teams. It is a different challenge,’ said O’Shea.

This new challenge has energised the group, and a big plus is that all their Carbery-winning heroes are back for more this season.

‘They are all excited. Even the older lads are like young lads coming through. Just playing a different championship is really exciting,’ the St James boss said.

Experienced players like Kevin O’Brien, Frank Hayes and O’Shea himself didn’t even contemplate hanging up their boots, as the Ardfield men venture into new territory.

‘Ah, they’re only young lads,’ O’Shea laughed.

‘There is nothing else to be doing, only playing GAA, that’s all. What do you want to be retired for.’

It’s not just the veterans driving the St James ship into new waters, but what is very encouraging is the young talent coming through.

‘There are young players like James Darby and Conor Whelton. Even Jack Butler has come home this year and is playing with us, he is in his 20s. We’re not an old team anymore, we’re kind of a mixed team,’ O’Shea said.

‘We have a good young player coming through in Sean Whelton, he’s involved with the Cork development squads. He is 16 years old and next year he’ll be 17 so hopefully, he’ll make the Cork minors.’

In the last few years, St James were a club that was struggling for numbers at underage, but O’Shea is enthused by what he is seeing on the way up.

‘In the next five years we’ll be in a very good place underage,’ he said. ‘We have fierce big numbers from U16 down and good players as well. We have a lot of promising young players coming through, which is good too.

‘The hurlers had a good year too, winning the league. Our U12s won every game this year; they beat senior clubs. The U17 hurlers are going very well and so are the U17 footballers.’

St James’ footballers’ focus now is on Kinsale in their opening Group C game in Timoleague on Saturday (3pm).

‘We are a small club and it’s our first time doing this. Kinsale have been around the block, they’ve been up and down the grades and they’re a well experienced club. If we show up, we’ll give a game to anyone. If we don’t we won’t win. That’s the bottom line,’ O’Shea explained.

St James lost to Kilmurry in the 2022 Cork JAFC in October, 2-10 to 2-7. The Ardfield side knows that will be a tough test on September 8th, and before that they play Millstreet on August 20th.

‘Last year, we weren’t really prepared because you had the hurling going on in the Carbery championship. We’ve learned, but it is going to be tough. When you look at those three teams in our group, you’d say that Kilmurry are favourites,’ O’Shea pointed out.

‘The aim is to win the first game and see where we go from there. There’s no point in setting targets. Play what’s in front of you, see how you get on.’