Buckley feels Dohenys can be competitive again

IT’S not going to be a quick fix but Dohenys new senior football manager, Tim Buckley, is confident that better days lie ahead for the Dunmanway club. The former Doheny footballer’s appointment as manager was rubber-stamped at last Friday night’s club AGM and he has waited little time in assembling his management team as he plots a course to calmer waters next year.

This year, Dohenys seniors were relegated from Division 2 of the county football league after they won only one of their 12 games, while in the county senior championship they lost to both Douglas and Ilen before drawing their relegation play-off against St Nick’s late last month; the two teams meet in the replay in early December.

‘Our expectations aren’t unreasonable,’ Buckley said, and top of his list is for the team to be competitive in next year’s county league.

‘We got relegated to Division 3 this year and we won only one game so we need to start competing, first and foremost, and see where we are in the Spring, heading into the championship.’

Buckley is hoping to tap into the underage success of Sam Maguire GAA Club and the minor team will contest the county minor B football final this Sunday. Buckley is involved in that management set-up.

‘We have a nice underage group coming through the Sam Maguire club, we’d like to think we are healthy enough in all the age groups, U16, U17, minor, U21 up. We want to foster that, set in place a foundation and make use of the facilities that we now have,’ Buckley said.

‘Every year there are leaders emerging, some of these guys are young and when you add in the experience of the older guys, there’s a good blend there.

‘We also have three Cork U21s – Sean Daly, Eoin Lavers and Mark Buckley (Tim’s son) – on our panel.’

Buckley’s management team is in place but he has yet to name his selectors. 

‘We have a nice strong group together so far. What I’ve done is concentrate on getting fellas in who are strong in certain areas,’ he said.

‘Kevin Crowley will be the players’ liaison, Brendan Farr will be our logistics man, Fachtna McCarthy will be liaising between ourselves and the club, Donal O’Sullivan is just recently retired and he will be doing stats and so on, and Padjoe Regan will be working with him. Martin Collins, from last year’s management team, will be helping out as well.

‘Micheál O’Sullivan, former Carbery Rangers manager, will stay on as the coach of the team, he is a great voice to have in the dressing-room.’

Buckley himself retired from football in 2004 and since then has been in charge of St Colum’s, St Mary’s, Kilmacabea, Dohenys for one season previously, and he was Cork U17 manager in 2009 and was involved again in 2013. Buckley and Co will work alongside the existing Doheny management team for the upcoming Cork SFC relegation play-off replay against St Nick’s.