Depleted Dohenys eager to put poor league form behind them

DOHENYS want to put their poor league form behind them as they turn their attention to the Cork SFC this Saturday night.

The Dunmanway team has struggled in the league this season, losing all six games in Division 2 as they prop up the table, but the first round of the championship offers Dohenys the chance to forget their league troubles.

Dohenys will play Douglas in Brinny at 7pm, but they have to do so without almost ten players, as selector Mark Farr – part of a four-man management team – explained.

‘A few fellas fellas have emigrated – the Collins’ twins, David and Tom, Johnny Kelly is gone as well, Pat Collins has moved to San Francisco. Denis Healy and Timmy O’Donovan have retired. We’ve a few injuries as well: Jamie Carroll and Brian McCarthy. Then you have Aidan O’Donovan who had played with us all through the league but he has injured his shoulder and is out for three months,’ Farr said.

On top of that Mark Quinn is only just back from an injury lay-off so the decimated Dohenys face a big ask against a Douglas team that has won one of their eight league matches. One positive is that Dohenys’ Cork U21s, Eoin Lavers and Sean Daly, and Cork minor Mark Buckley are to come into the side. 

‘We have been missing our Cork U21s for most of the year and it’s the same with our Cork minor, Mark Buckley. They have been tied up with the county so we haven’t had access to them and they will obviously be a big addition to us,’ Farr said.

At least, with the new championship format, the fear of relegation doesn’t exist this season for Dohenys, which is one less worry for the club, but Farr is targeting a win on Saturday evening, against all the odds.

Crucial to that is a big improvement in the scoring stakes, he insists.

‘Douglas aren’t going well in the Kelleher Shield but it’s the same for us and we are being beaten by intermediate clubs. Losing all the games in the league just tells you where we are – all these injuries, fellas retiring and fellas leaving has taken its toll,’ he said.

‘But championship is championship, you don’t know what will happen. We want a performance but the first thing we are going for is the result.

‘We want to put a respectable score on the board because our average scoring in the league this year has been eight points per game, which isn’t enough. We need to score more.’

Joining Farr on the Dohenys management team this season is Tony O’Sullivan, and this duo are new to the setup, linking up with Steven Mohane and Michael O’Donovan who were involved last year.