THIS is something to look forward to for the people of Glengarriff.
The club are in a McCarthy Insurance Group Junior B Football Championship semi-final this Saturday against Carrigaline (2.30pm) in Clonakilty.
‘We’re in bonus territory so to speak,’ their manager Seán Hurley told The Southern Star.
‘We have no idea what Carrigaline is like so we just have to go out and do our best. That is supposed to be the hardest side of the draw so it will be a good test for the lads and we can see where we are.’
A 3-11 to 2-11 win over Doneraile in the quarter-final was decided by a Callum McElhinney spot kick deep into added time.
It showed great resilience from the team, especially after losing a six-point lead that they had built up with eight minutes to go. The key was that they kept their cool.
‘They have great spirit. They seem to come back and try to dig it out. We now have only one loss in our last nine championship games. We have come a long way. You have to learn to win. To be very hard to beat in gaelic football is very important,’ Hurley added.
Their record in 2025 has been impressive as their manager pointed out.
We now have only one loss in our last nine championship games
In the confined Junior B Football Championship earlier this year, they drew to St Catherine’s and Araglen before a win over Shanballymore in the group stage before they fell to Ballyphehane in the quarter-final.
In the Beara division, they beat Adrigole, Castletownbere and Garnish before their victory over Doneraile in the county scene.
Despite the win though, there will still be some elements the Beara side will look to improve on.
‘We were well on top at half-time and well into the second-half but we made a change in the backs and lost our shape. Doneraile came back at us and we were lucky in the finish to pull it out of the fire.
‘It was looking like a draw for a while but Stephen O’Sullivan went towards goal and got pulled down. Callum slotted it. That’s the luck of the game. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,’ the Glengarriffe manager explained.
Glengarriff manager Sean Hurley.
That confined championship did end in a 5-11 to 0-10 loss to Ballyphehane, a day where the goals were detrimental to Glen’s chances.
There would have learnings from that county championship venture but Hurley feels that a lot more context was needed in explaining the result.
‘We were depleted in numbers that day. I thought we were better than the scoreline suggested but again, it depends on their attitude. They knuckle down.
‘They learn and they take another step in the ladder. They could have dropped their heads and said, “we are out of our depth here,” but no. They want to get up to the level. That’s the objective,’ Hurley said.
Worth noting too that this is a young team.
The Beara division were in action in the county U21 A championship last weekend, losing to Douglas, and over a third of the team were from Glengarriff.
There is still experience sprinkled in too but these are positive times for the future.
‘They’re young lads. There were six on the Beara panel on Sunday. It’s great to have that number. It’s a statement to go and represent Beara. There is a mixture of age and youth. There are only three or four fellas there at the wrong side of 30,’ the Glengarriff boss said.
‘Once they stay together, they’ll enjoy their career and if they emigrate, who knows.’
To reach a county final not only would be a great achievement but also a good thing for the whole community.
‘It would be amazing. At the start of 2024, there was an air of doom and gloom around the place because people thought the club was going to go out of existence. The numbers weren’t looking good. You have a good bunch of lads there and they’ve done unbelievable work.
‘They have been going to the gym since December and training two nights a week. There have been a lot of Sunday mornings too. You have to take your hat off to them. You can’t say anymore. I can’t praise them enough. Win, lose or draw,’ Hurley concluded.
