HE remembers feeling reassuringly calm as the storm raged on around him.

With just ten minutes left in the county senior A football semi-final, Éire Óg trailed Cill na Martra by eight points, 1-13 to 0-8.

But Eoin Fehily’s men didn’t press the panic button.

Instead, they trusted the work that had taken them to this stage.

‘I said it after the game, on the line we were very calm,’ he recalls.

‘The players were very calm, and that doesn’t just happen on a day. It goes back to us doing our preparation and the hard work, and believing that was going to pay off.

‘Obviously, it does come down to a kick of football, but the biggest and the most impressive thing about those players that day was they didn’t go off script. No one was looking to be a maverick and try to do something their own way that we haven’t been working on all year.’

Éire Óg rallied.

They refused to accept defeat.

Points from Brian Thompson and veteran Daniel Goulding narrowed the gap. Bang. Sub Matt Brady goaled. Bang. Sub Johnny Galvin rattled the net in the last minute to level this thriller. Extra-time. Here, the Ovens men won this war of attrition, 2-16 to 1-16, to advance to the McCarthy Insurance Group Senior A Football Championship final against Kanturk this Sunday at Páirc Uí Chaoimh (2pm).

Éire Óg manager Eoin Fehily with his sons, Eli, Shay and Ethan. (Photo: David Casey)

‘The last five minutes of normal time and the two halves in extra time were probably the best we performed all game,’ Fehily says.

‘I think it was that inner belief that the lads had. They didn’t lose their composure. They stayed at it, and they didn’t drop their heads when kicks landed short or we got turned over.

‘You can’t coach that resolve. That has to come from players developing themselves.’

But the foundations for that comeback were laid much earlier in the season.

Fehily, in his first season as Éire Óg manager, is a big believer in creating the right environment for players.

He has a strong background in soccer, and managed local teams like Killumney United and Lakewood Athletic, but feels many skills learned in one sporting code can translate into another.

‘One of the most important skills has to be people. If you’re in a management position and you’re managing people, that has to be the starting point,’ he says.

‘When you’re dealing with people, for me it’s all about the environment – you want to create the right environment for people who are ultimately giving up their own free time to be here.

‘You want to have the principles of hard work and all the rest of it, but you just want a good environment where people want to come down and put in that hard work.

‘When you are dealing with the people and the players aspect, players identify as people. They don’t go around identifying as players. I think anyone in life just wants clarity, honesty, and then you have to have trust to have that honesty and have that open relationship with the players. Again, it stems from the environment.’

Éire Óg captain Mark Griffin. (Photo: David Casey)

Éire Óg’s approach has worked so far.

They topped their group in the championship, beating Kilshannig, Clyda Rovers and Bishopstown. The semi-final comeback highlighted the resilience of the Ovens men. But it didn’t surprise Fehily – having the opportunity with this group was one of the reasons he put his name into the ring to become manager.

‘Even from the outside, you can just see that these guys are very honest and hard-working. When we talk about values and principles, they’re instilled in a lot of lads before anyone comes in,’ Fehily says.

He saw the potential in a team that was relegated from the premier senior championship in 2024 after a four-year stay at the top grade. Last season, under Harry O’Reilly, they reached the semi-finals at senior A. Éire Óg were among the contenders, and Fehily believed he could bring something different to the club.

‘Last year, when the opportunity did come up, there was a bit of word that Éire Óg were looking at something different. I believed in my skill set and what I bring as a manager so I said I’ll just throw my name into the hat,’ he recalls.

The Ballincollig man has his feet on the ground locally. His two older sons Eli and Ethan go to Ovens National School, while Shay will follow them next September. His sons play with Éire Óg, too. Fehily knows the club well, having been involved in the underage set-up previously.

‘I always wanted to give football management a try,’ he says.

Éire Óg gave him the opportunity.

When Fehily interviewed for the role, he didn’t have a management team lined up. Instead, he trusted that he could build one if he landed the job. He did, with the club’s help.

The addition of Newcestown’s Carthach Keane, still playing with his home club, as Éire Óg coach has worked.

It’s another West Cork link to the Muskerry outfit, as Fehily’s  parents hail from this region too, his dad Micheál is from Dunmanway and his mom Carmel is from Clonakilty.

Carthach Keane is another link. He has worked with Tadhg MacCarthaigh and the Cork U20s in the past and more recently Naomh Abán footballers, so his reputation is building.

They interviewed separately for their respective positions – manager and coach – driven by a shared ambition: to work with this club.

‘Last December I met Carthach, it was the two of us in a room and that was the management team,’ says Fehily, whose management team is completed by Joe Kelleher (selector), Dylan Byrne (S&C), Colin Tuohy (S&C) and David Bunyan (logistics).

‘The first phone call we had lasted nearly an hour. He was on holiday, I was here, and we just clicked.

‘We had very much the same ideologies when you get into the nooks and crannies of how we wanted football to be played, the principles of how we were going to apply that.

‘Carthach brings a massive amount of football knowledge and real detail to the game. It’s absolutely his credit for how he’s transferred his knowledge as a player to then implement that as a coach. His detail in preparation is incredible.

‘Then, of course, the wider team and what they bring, from Joe, Dave, Dylan, Colm, and the wider backroom team. I just think we work very well together.

‘There’s a massive amount of respect from the management team to the players and players to the management team, and keeping that on song makes us be able to run the hard yards, do the extra video sessions and all the rest of it.’

They have quality on the pitch. 2010 Cork All-Ireland winner Daniel Goulding, now 40, is still producing – he is the fourth-highest scorer in the senior A championship with 0-23. Cork midfielder Colm O’Callaghan has developed into a powerhouse. Darragh Clifford captained the Cork U20s before John Cleary brought him into the county senior set-up. Chris Kelly and Ronan O’Toole were previously with the Cork seniors. Éire Óg captain Mark Griffin, a south Kerry man who now calls Cork home, is another leader, a former All-Ireland winner with his native county.

Éire Óg's Colm O'Callaghan.

‘So many players from the club have been involved with various Cork squads over the years. That’s a massive credit to the players, and also the coaches and the managers that have been there in their formative years at underage, right up into what was going on to last year,’ Fehily says.

‘The foundation of the team was there. They reached the semi-final of the county last year. So as a new management team, it was seeing can we go in and do something? And can we be true to ourselves and implement something that we want to do in a certain way?

‘Again, that’s a collective between the whole management team and the players.’

Every training session, every meeting and every match has created the opportunity Éire Óg have this Sunday in the county final against Kanturk. The Duhallow men showed their battling qualities in a comeback semi-final win over Carbery Rangers. Fehily knows the challenge ahead is huge, but this is why he wanted this role: to test himself in the big moments.

‘We’ll prepare like we do for any other game and keep to the steady constants of what we’ve been doing all year,’ he explains.

‘It’s just putting full focus on yourself, to put yourself in a position to give your best performance.

‘Championships aren’t won on a single day. A game of football is won on the day, and we’re going to go in to prepare to win a game of football.

‘Ultimately, we know we have to have the biggest performance in us. The biggest thing that we’ll be asking the players is we need the execution to be better than the semi. But in any big game, you have to have the discipline and composure.

‘The whole thing goes in swings and roundabouts, but when they get their little swing of momentum, how are we managing ourselves? And of course, when we get our momentum, we’ve got to be capitalising.’

It all comes down to one game of football, a match Fehily and Éire Óg have been working towards.