MUCH like Castletownbere’s recent upturn in form, club stalwart Andrew O’Sullivan seems to be kicking into gear at the right time.

Fresh off finishing 75th in the Cork City Marathon on May 31st, the 40-year-old former Cork footballer has swapped long-distance running for the pitch.

He played his first league game this year for the Beara club on June 21st in a 2-12 to 0-12 victory over Carrigaline and manager Lorcan Harrington is happy to see him ready to go for their championship opener.

Castletown won two of their last three games, but a difficult start to Division 2 saw them relegated.

They head into their McCarthy Insurance Group Premier Intermediate championship opener against Macroom on Saturday (7pm) in Bantry with momentum and their veteran standard-setter back in the fold.

‘Andrew only started training for the Cork City Marathon just before Christmas and he came in the top 80, which was crazy. He’s only been back training and playing football with us for the last couple of weeks,’ Harrington told The Southern Star.

‘It’s a big transition between training for a marathon and playing football. He’s back on the field and we are hoping to get something out of him. He played in the last couple of league games.

‘He is a great role model to younger players – he drives them on. Andrew sets the tone and the standard for the rest of the team.’

Harrington is in his first season in charge, assisted by Andrew O'Sullivan, David O'Sullivan Greene, Joss Crowley, David Kelly and John Paul Sheehan, while former Kerry footballer Gavin Crowley coaches the team.

‘It’s been tough at times, trying to juggle everything. I’m lucky to have a good and experienced backroom team there. We’ve got Gavin Crowley from Kerry doing a lot of coaching with us – he has improved us this year, bringing his experience from playing at a high level with Kerry. The lads like him and are learning a lot from him,’ Harrington explained.

‘The foundations were already there thanks to the work Peadar Healy did with this group. Managing brings different challenges than playing, but I've enjoyed it.’

While the elder statesmen such as O’Sullivan and injury concern Gary Murphy are key figures for Castletown’s championship charge, captain this season is Fintan Fenner.

Turning 23 this year, Fenner was top scorer for MTU Cork in the Sigerson Cup with 1-5 and played for Cork in their McGrath Cup clash against Limerick in January too.

‘Fintan is quite young but he has developed great leadership skills on the pitch. He’s a great lad to drive the team forward,’ Harrington acknowledged.

‘He is a player that definitely plays beyond his years. He was brought into the Cork seniors for a couple of weeks before they played Mayo. He’s one for the future if he keeps going the way he’s going,’ the Castletown boss said.

And there is more young talent to note.

‘Jonathan Harrington is another player to keep an eye on – he played for UCC in the Sigerson Cup a couple of years ago. He was with the Cork U23s for a spell when they had the development squad. We are lucky to have him on board this year.’

Ollie Byrne is based in London and won’t be available for this season but, thankfully from Castletown’s point of view, there are no major absentees otherwise.

‘We have one player in Dublin and five or six in Cork, so we train in places like Dunmanway, Kealkill and Cloughduv. It’s challenging, but we're used to it,’ the Beara club’s boss added.

‘We’re not blessed with a huge panel. The first couple of games, we had a few injuries. The experienced lads were a bit late coming back too. We would have put it up to most teams in the league if we had a full team. We were disappointed to get relegated.’

For the second year in a row, Castletown are in a group with Macroom and Kiskeam. Aghada provide further opposition in Group 2.

Like any club, the Beara boys hope to make the knockout stages.

‘It’s the third year in a row where we have played Macroom in the first game of the championship. There has been nothing between the teams. Last year, Declan Dunne got a point in injury time to win it for us,’ he said.

‘We lost to Kiskeam last year. We’d know Aghada well from playing them in the last couple of years. It’s a tough group. Our only focus is getting out of it. Anything after that can wait.’