THE script has been written, and it’s a cracker – O’Donovan Rossa’s first two games in the senior championship will be against Clonakilty and Castlehaven.
It’s a baptism of fire for the Skibbereen team in their debut senior season, but the 2024 Cork and Munster intermediate champions will relish the challenge thrown up after the 2025 Cork Credit Unions Cork LGFA county championship draws were made.
In their opening two Group 1 games, O’Donovan Rossa will be away to current senior B champions Clonakilty on August 17th before hosting arch rivals Castlehaven one week later on August 24th. It doesn’t get any easier as games against reigning county champions Aghada and St Val’s follow.
After an incredible few seasons have seen the Skibb team rise through the ranks, a team with talents like Laura O’Mahony, Éabha O’Donovan and Allie Tobin will be eager to prove themselves, especially against two local rivals.
‘It’s always more interesting when it is a local derby and our first two games will be no exceptions,’ Rossa’s coach Derek Tobin told The Southern Star.
‘Look, finding our feet at senior level is the most important thing for us this year. It is going to be hard to replicate what this bunch of girls has achieved at county, Munster and All-Ireland levels over the past couple of years.
‘Obviously, it is going to be a big step up to senior. We know that and the girls know that. Those first few games will show us where we are at.
‘This year’s county league was a bit of a mixed bag as we had so many girls away. We haven’t had everyone on the panel back together training yet. Once we do that, hopefully we will get going again.’
Tobin admits that this Rossas panel are a self-motivated group. Look at the evidence – they won county, Munster and All-Ireland junior honours in 2023, and backed that up with county and Munster intermediate glory last season.
‘Having been involved over the last few years, it is the girls themselves who drove things on and senior will be no different,’ Tobin said.
‘It is great to be up playing senior championship and playing the likes of the Aghadas, the Clons and the Castlehavens. Those clubs have been up senior for a couple of years so, there is going to be a bit of a learning curve for us.
‘I would be very hopeful that O’Donovan Rossa will be competitive though. The girls have learned an awful lot over the last few years which should help them at senior.’
As for Castlehaven and Clonakilty, the other West Cork rivals produced one of the best games of the 2024 championship. A breathless senior B county semi-final was level after normal and extra-time, 0-14 to 2-8, before the Brewery Town emerged winners on free-kicks in Ahamilla. Clon went on to win the senior B title and their latest clash with the Haven, in early September, should be another occasion to savour.
Clonakilty's Aisling Moloney in action.
Sinéad O'Donovan, Katie O’Driscoll, Siofra Pattwell, Aoife O’Flynn Meade, Aisling Moloney and Laura Daly have been amongst Clon’s scorers during this year’s Division 1 county league campaign. Castlehaven’s Hannah Sheehy, Ellen Connolly, Becca Sheehy, Niamh O’Sullivan and Mairead O’Driscoll have also been in impressive scoring form so far this term.
Group 2 of the senior championship looks equally entertaining with county runners-up for the past four years, Éire Óg, drawn alongside Kinsale, Glanmire, Mourneabbey and Bride Rovers.
Kinsale qualified for the senior B county knockout stages last term, defeating Mourneabbey in the semi-finals before losing the decider to Clonakilty, 2-5 to 0-5. The West Cork LGFA club enter this year’s county championship in rude health having won four of their five Division 1 county league fixtures before falling to Glanmire in the semi-finals. A panel including Caoimhe Horgan, Jenny Murphy, Caoimhe O’Callaghan, Lorraine Copithorne and Kate Redmond offers Kinsale every chance of enjoying another productive senior championship run.
Castlehaven's Grainne O'Sullivan goes past Rosscarbery's Grainne Hodnett.
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Naomh Abán start this year’s Cork Credit Unions intermediate county championship amongst the favourites to lift the trophy.
Junior A champions in 2022, intermediate runners-up to Glanmire in 2023 and to O’Donovan Rossa in 2024, the Ballyvourney club is desperate to join the senior ranks.Expect Cork seniors Amy McDonagh, Lydia McDonagh and Rosie Corkery to play pivotal roles in a championship that also includes Abhainn Dalla, Midleton, Rosscarbery, Valley Rovers, Fermoy and Inch Rovers.
West Cork LGFA clubs Ross and Valleys possess enough raw material to make their presence felt at this grade. Rosscarbery lost out to Naomh Abán in last year’s semi-finals and rounded off a positive 2025 Division 2 league campaign by defeating Bantry Blues. Grainne O’Brien, Ciara O’Rourke, Ciara Whooley and Sarah Hayes were on target and should feature prominently over the coming months.
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Bantry and Dohenys are West Cork’s representatives in the 2025 Cork Credit Unions junior A county championship.
The latter start another campaign as one of the competition’s favourites having come up short to Midleton (2024), O’Donovan Rossa (2023) and Castlehaven (2021) in recent finals. As ever, Cork stalwart Melissa Duggan will be Dohenys’ go-to player but a talented panel is capable of finally getting over the line.
Bantry have qualified for this year’s Division 2 county league final against Carrigaline off the back of five wins from seven outings. The Blues will cause a few surprises before the year is out, if Sarah Bishop, Rachel Murphy, Eve Murphy, Aoife Kingston and Caitlin O’Mahony replicate their consistent league scoring in the championship.
