County finalists Clonakilty rocked by Ó Sé’s departure

BY KIERAN McCARTHY

CLONAKILTY footballers must plan for the 2022 season without their top scorer Dara Ó Sé.

The Kerry import is transferring back to his home club, An Ghaeltacht, which will bring the curtain down on his impressive two-year spell with Clon’s footballers.

Ó Sé became an instant fans’ favourite with Clon when he joined the club in 2020 and immediately added a scoring edge they had been missing. For the past two years the man from Ballydavid in West Kerry, who works as a Garda in West Cork, has topped the scoring charts.

The talented forward was key in Clon’s brilliant run to this year’s Cork Premier SFC final and finished the campaign as the third highest scorer (2-31), only finishing behind Rebel hot-shots Steven Sherlock and Brian Hurley.

Ó Sé’s departure is a huge blow to beaten Cork PSFC finalists Clonakilty who will look to build on their county championship run this year, but they will have to do so without their main scoring threat.

So influential was Ó Sé that former All-Ireland winning Kerry football manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice suggested, in The Irish Examiner, that new Cork football boss Keith Ricken should consider the West Kerry man. ‘A left-field choice for Ricken may be to look at Dara Ó Sé. He had a great game, nailing his frees and he kicked a good score for Clonakilty near the end. He may bring something different to Cork,’ Fitzmaurice said.

Ó Sé is swapping Premier senior football in Cork for intermediate football in Kerry with his home club An Ghaeltacht.