‘THAT winning feeling is contagious,’ explains Ethan Draper, reflecting on Clonakilty Soccer Club’s current stranglehold on the West Cork League.

After the breakthrough Premier Division and Beamish Cup triumphs of the 2023/24 campaign, Clonakilty shifted up another gear last season. They claimed four trophies – back-to-back Premier Division and Beamish Cup successes, as well as the Premier Division Cup and Michael Cronin Cup.

Ominously for the chasing pack, Draper insists this Clon group aren’t finished yet.

‘All those good moments that we’ve had winning the league and cups, we want them again,’ he says.

‘We want to keep going, and keep winning and winning as long as we can. Now we’re doing well, we want to keep this going.’

That drive has carried Clonakilty from nearly men to serial winners. They had been close before – losing the 2021 and ’22 Beamish Cup finals, while Clonakilty Town – before the amalgamation with Clonakilty AFC to form Clonakilty Soccer Club – were beaten finalists in 2020. They were there or thereabouts for years before finally wrestling the mantle of top team in West Cork from Drinagh Rangers.

Now, Clon are the side everyone wants to beat – but that’s easier said than done. When they retained their Premier Division title in 2024/25, they went the entire campaign unbeaten. The previous season, they lost just one league game. Two titles, 32 league matches, only one defeat – a level of consistency that comes from relentless work on the training ground.

Chris Collins with his daughter Fiadh and Ethan Draper with his son Zack celebrate after Clon won the 2024 Gareth O'Driscoll Perpetual Memorial Cup.

‘Everyone is out to get us now so we need to keep at our best,’ Draper says. ‘In the West Cork League you get nothing handed to you – you have to work. Our training is top class, so intense. We train twice a week, 20 lads there. The key is to take the hard work in training onto the pitch at the weekend.

‘If you lose one game it gives the rest of the teams belief, so you need to perform week after week.’

That belief – in themselves and each other – has been central to Clon’s rise. One game in particular is remembered as the moment they truly arrived: the 2024 Beamish Cup final, when Clon, under the management team of John Leahy and Lorne Edmead, beat Drinagh Rangers 3-2.

‘That was the moment we knew we were good enough to beat a team like Drinagh,’ Draper recalls.

‘They had been so dominant for years and years, and we were probably all a bit fearful of them really. Even though we knew our best 11 could put it up to them, there was still a fear factor.

‘Beating Drinagh in that cup final took the monkey off our backs. From then we pushed on, with the belief that we could beat any team out there.’

That confidence was reinforced last season with a 4-2 league win away to Drinagh – a result that sealed back-to-back titles on their rivals’ home patch. Goals from Chris Collins (2), Jack O’Crowley and James Calnan fired Clon to a memorable quadruple.

‘It’s hard enough to beat them on our home patch, never mind go to Canon Crowley Park and beat them there,’ Draper admits. ‘They are such a serious outfit.’

He knows how high the bar is in the West Cork League, and that makes Clon’s achievements even more impressive. But there’s no sense of resting on laurels. Draper feels this Clon team has the potential to emulate Drinagh’s three-in-a-row Premier Division run (2019–20, ’21–22, ’22–23).

‘That would be unbelievable,’ he says.

‘Any player that plays in the West Cork League knows how important it is to win the league title.

‘Winning one is brilliant, winning two was better again, but to win three would be incredible. That would show it’s not pot luck – it’s consistency.

‘It’s training, training, training, and a tight-knit group of players.’

That bond runs deep. Draper and free-scoring striker Chris Collins are best friends; Draper is godfather to Collins’ daughter Fiadh, while Collins is godfather to Draper’s son Zack. The pair even work together at Clonakilty Blackpudding.

‘I’ve to take orders from Flash on the pitch and at work too!’ Draper laughs.

It’s those personal ties that make this group special. They’re team-mates and friends, and that unity off the pitch shows in their football on it.

‘Most of the players are around the same age, so there are plenty of years left in this team,’ Draper says.

‘We know if we keep our heads down and keep training hard, there’s no reason we can’t compete for every competition we’re in. We have fellas who are just finishing their Leaving Cert, and I’m at the other end of it, at 32. It’s a good balance, and we’re only improving.’

The standard they’ve set now becomes the challenge to maintain – to keep pushing, to keep setting the pace, to keep that winning feeling alive.

And for Draper, that feeling isn’t fading anytime soon.

‘Once you get that winning feeling, you just want it again and again.’