HAVE we found Kilmacabea’s secret weapon that sparked their run to Cork junior A football glory?

After years of coming up short in their quest to conquer the county, we can reveal that a bottle of Lucozade was central to their season of triumph, as they captured Carbery and Cork titles!

Okay, perhaps that’s a bit of an over-stretch, but, still, this is an interesting peek behind the Kilmacabea curtains.

After every game, manager Donie O’Donovan hands out a bottle of Lucozade to his man of the match – and it’s certainly caused a fizz in the Kilmacabea dressing-room, ensuring they don’t go flat.

‘It’s generally Donie’s man of the match who gets it,’ quips Colin McCarthy, chatting to The Southern Star for our 2025 Sports Review – out on New Year’s Eve.

‘It’s always a bit of craic to see who gets it. It’s a morale thing for everybody. And it’s a novelty to get it.

‘You always know the first person Donie mentions won’t get it. It could be “Colin had a great game, he was outstanding, but he’s not getting the bottle of Lucozade!”

‘There was one game when Damo (Damien Gore) scored ten points, but he didn’t get the bottle of Lucozade!’

So where did this come from? It turns out that Donie O’Donovan started this novelty when he was coaching Kilmacabea LGFA teams in 2022. The girls loved it, so when he took over as Kilmacabea men’s team manager in 2024 he carried on the tradition – the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids!

He won’t claim to have thought of the idea, admitting it was borrowed from elsewhere, but Donie’s bottle of Lucozade has been a talking point on Kilmacabea’s journey to Cork junior A glory.

So, who received the bottle of Lucozade after Kilmacabea’s county final win at Páirc Uí Chaoimh ?

‘There is only one answer: it had to be Eamo,’ Colin McCarthy reveals, as man-of-the-match Eamonn Shanahan will stand his bottle of Lucozade proudly beside his winner’s medal!