AARON Hayes jokes that on the week he turned 30, he’s glad there’s a full day of recovery between two huge football games he will be involved in this weekend.

On Friday evening, St James take on Kilmeen in a Carbery junior A football championship quarter-final in Ballinascarthy.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon in Clonakilty where the Carbery divisional team, adopting the role of David, will attempt to slay Goliath, county champions St Finbarr’s, in a huge premier senior quarter-final.

‘The day is definitely needed,’ he quips.

‘I’m not too old yet, but I’m not young either, so the extra day of recovery will be a help.’

With age comes wisdom and experience, so on a stacked weekend like this, Hayes takes it all in his stride.

For both Carbery and St James, there is an opportunity to extend the season and advance to the semi-finals.

Perhaps there is less expectation on Carbery, though, given they are a divisional side that has not been in action since July 10th when Gene O’Donovan’s men beat Muskerry. Club action has taken over since then.

The Barrs, meanwhile, are reigning county champions, albeit smarting from two uncharacteristic defeats in the group stage of the competition.

Every prediction this week will tip the Barrs. Hayes knows this, but he also knows the talent within this Carbery group.

‘Well, I think as a divisional side, you always feel like you have a free swing in the quarter-final, because every club is going to think that they’re the favourites going into the game. So it’s just on us,’ he says.

‘We don’t get together as much as any club team, but the talent that we have is really, really impressive. We’ll go in there with a lot of confidence, with absolutely nothing to fear and nothing to lose.’

Earlier in the summer, Carbery beat Duhallow (3-18 to 1-23) and then Muskerry (2-23 to 2-15) before UCC conceded their preliminary quarter-final. Carbery can only control their controllables, and so far they’ve passed each test they have faced. The further they progress, the harder the challenges become, even more so as a divisional side.

Hayes, though, is a seasoned campaigner with Carbery so knows how this works better than most.

‘I’m a big fan of divisional teams. Sure, I’ve been doing it on and off with Carbery since I was about 18, in hurling or football, usually one code most years. I think it’s really important,’ Hayes says.

‘I love playing the games, love playing with loads of different lads and playing a high standard of football.

‘But I think it’s just really important for smaller clubs to be able to get their players to be able to play senior football or senior hurling.

‘It’s just been an unreal opportunity for me over the last ten years. And I hope it just continues, and if we’re successful, that more people are interested in getting involved and we can just build the strength of the divisional teams, because it’s a great opportunity for lads that we wouldn’t have otherwise.’

Look at the footballers in this current Carbery panel. Captain Damien Gore (an injury doubt for this weekend), Barryroe forwards Ryan O’Donovan and his cousin Olan O’Donovan, just back from injury, Olan Corcoran of St Mary’s, Gabriel Rangers’ Keith O’Driscoll, it’s a squad brimming with quality.

Add in the experience of a player like Bantry Blues’ Ruairi Deane, a leader in this current set-up. Rewind a few years, the form Deane and then Tadhg MacCarthaigh footballer Brian O’Driscoll showed for Carbery was one of the reasons they got called back up to the Cork panel.

Playing for Carbery – or any divisional team that puts in the work – is an opportunity for players to put themselves in the shop window.

‘Of course, divisional teams can 100 percent work,’ Hayes insists.

‘We saw it the last time we got to the quarter-final. Ruairi and Brian were called up to the Cork panel the year after. It’s a way to get junior footballers and maybe lower-grade footballers with a bit of exposure, which is class.

‘And then for lads like myself, I just love playing a different standard of football with different guys while I still can, while I’m up to the level.

‘It’s important that it does give an extra thing for younger players to strive for. They know they can play senior football even if their club’s only junior B or junior A, which I think is really important.’

There’s potential in this current Carbery team too.

‘If you look at 80 percent of the team, it’s unbelievably young. I’m one of the older fellas on the team,’ says Hayes, who turned 30 on Wednesday.

‘I’d say Ruairi’s probably the only fella starting who’s over 30. We’re an unbelievably young team with a lot of potential. Especially in the forward line there, we’ve just loads of lads who can kick scores and change games.

‘You don’t know what the ceiling is, and that’s the exciting part of it.

‘And one of the things about us not getting together as much as a club team is we can just go out there and play with a bit of freedom, and just show off what we can do. That’s what we’ll look to do.’

The Barrs will wear the tag of favourites in Sunday’s quarter-final in Clon, but Hayes sees this as an opportunity for this group of Carbery footballers to show what they can do in front of a huge home crowd.

‘We’re going out there with the genuine belief that we’ll be able to win the game. If you beat the county champions from last year, then the world’s our oyster, and we’ll just hopefully kick on even more from there,’ he says.

St James' Aaron Hayes scored his side's only goal against Tadhg MacCarthaigh.

Before Carbery takes centre stage, Hayes hopes to have St James already in the semi-finals of the Carbery junior A championship. Alan O’Shea’s team won all three group games and is one of the form teams right now. It’s a turnaround from last year’s disappointing showing when the Saints, back in Carbery after a brief stint in the county championship, just never got going.

‘Coming off last year where we didn’t get one win in the group stage, had one draw, were not far off relegation, we really had to put a lot of work in over the winter and in the early part of the season just to change that around,’ Hayes explains.

‘The year has gone to plan so far. We focused on getting promoted in the league, we achieved that. We wanted to win the league final, unfortunately Ross beat us there. Then we were just focusing on the next game, next game, so to come out of the group with three wins was huge.

‘There’s good positivity in the group now, we’re having fun going down to training, so hopefully that doesn’t end on Friday, and we can keep going.’

Beating Tadhg MacCarthaigh, Diarmuid Ó Mathúnas and St Oliver Plunkett’s to top the group shows St James are moving well right now.

‘It’s a snowball effect. ‘Once you start having a bit of success and a bit of positivity in the group, it can keep going, and everyone wants to be there, and everyone’s fighting to be there, and it’s just so much more enjoyable,’ Hayes says.

‘When we got that first win over Caheragh in the championship this year, that was a big weight off our shoulders. We’ve played with a bit more freedom since then, which has been good.’

So, on the week he celebrated his birthday, Hayes is hoping for two more presents this weekend.