AS they enter the unknown, Mike Keohane is urging Mount Saint Michael footballers to embrace the challenge.

For the first time, the Rosscarbery school will campaign in the Corn Uí Mhuirí, the prestigious U19A colleges’ football competition in Munster.

This is for the best of the best.

‘It’s our first time being up in the top grade for Munster colleges,’ says Keohane, who has coached football teams in the schools since September 1994.

‘This is my 33rd year doing it, so I take great pride in that. We’ve played some championship years where we were in C grade, and now to go from C to B to A, it’s a great reward for everyone involved.’

Mount Saint Michael earned their place in the Corn Uí Mhuirí by winning the Munster colleges’ senior B football crown last season. Super-sub Dylan O’Neill kicked a last-gasp winner as they beat Abbey CBS in the final.

‘We were expecting to go up A after that success,’ Keohane says.

‘We competed in the Simcox Cup here in Cork for seven or eight years there some time ago, because we had gone to about ten B finals in a row, so we went up to Simcox then for a spell. But this is our first time competing in the Corn Uí Mhuirí.’

‘It’s definitely going to be a big challenge for us because we are a relatively small, rural school. 

‘In last season’s successful team, we had 13 sixth years out of the 26 players that we had, so that’s 50 per cent of the panel gone. Trying to replace that, it’s definitely going to be a challenge, but it’s a challenge that we’re looking forward to and we’re embracing.’

Mount Saint Michael's management team of Michael Keohane and Enda Favier with the Munster senior B trophy. (Photo: George Hatchell)

The Rosscarbery school has been drawn in Group 1 alongside two more Cork teams – Hamilton High School Bandon and St Francis College Rochestown – and Intermediate School Killorglin.

Life in the top flight begins with the West Cork derby clash with the Hammies next Wednesday.

As the new kids on the block, perhaps some might not hold high expectations of Mount Saint Michael making an impact, but they’re quietly confident they can hold their own among the elite.

‘We’re definitely in a tough group,’ Keohane admits.

‘We’ve a local derby against Hammies, then we have Rochestown who have been one of the really consistent teams over the years in the A championship, and then it’s Killorglin. The three games will be hard, but we’re looking forward to it.

‘We’re not worried about it, and we think we could be quite competitive there.’

Naturally, there is a turnover in the Mount Saint Michael squad from last year’s Munster-winning side.

Players like Dylan O’Neill, Pádraig Tobin, Dylan Scannell, Jerry McCarthy and Ben Sheehy have moved on, leaving the corridors of Mount Saint Michael behind them. But Keohane feels that they have good replacements, ready to step up in this exciting time for football in the school.

‘It’s a natural thing in schools. Every year you’re losing sixth years and you are replacing them again with fourth years coming in from third year, and you’re hoping the lads that would have been in fifth year on the team will take up being the leaders of the team then at that stage,’ he explains.

‘You find that summer between fifth and sixth year, they do mature a lot, and we can see that already this year in some of them, like Odhran O’Donovan who had a terrific year last year, and Joe McCarthy; both play with Kilmacabea.

‘You can see them this year really stepping up into a leadership role for us. That’s what we expect from them, and that’s what they deliver for us.’

Mount Saint Michael's Luke O'Neill in action in the 2026 Munster colleges senior B final against Abbey CBS.

Goalkeeper Ciarán Campbell, Kevin Duffy and Michael McCarthy, all from Carbery Rangers, and Kilmacabea’s Joe O’Donovan are current sixth years who will play leading roles this season.

‘They were on the team last year, from time to time coming on as replacements, but they made a big impact. We’d be hoping that that experience will stand to them this coming year,’ Keohane says.

‘But we would be relying on a number of fourth years as well, which would make us a very young team, because this is an U19 championship.’

‘We’d be looking again at Luke O’Neill, who was on the senior team last year as a third year student. Killian Fitzpatrick is another. Even though they’re young, they’ve a lot of experience and they’ve played a lot of football.

‘We’re probably not physically as strong as last year, but we’ve still a very good football team.’

The strength of the Mount Saint Michael team lies in their team ethic. Mainly drawing on players from three local clubs – Carbery Rangers, Kilmacabea and St James – it’s a tight-knit group.

‘Our strength all the time is the team. We never relied on individuals, even last year. We were a very strong team all over the pitch, from goalkeeper right up to corner forward,’ Keohane explains.

‘That was our strong point last year – that everybody did their bit and carried their weight. That was the reason why we had success, and that’s why we would hope to have a bit of success this year with the younger lads.

‘As a school, we’re very lucky we’ve a good relationship with all the local clubs. They’re very supportive of school football, and when the lads come into school, they’re dying to play school football, they love it. We’re just here to give them that opportunity, give them that little bit of guidance, and the rest is up to them then.’

Hailing the support from the school and the input from football-mad coaches like Enda Favier, James O’Sullivan and Seamus Hayes, Keohane is keen to stress this is a team effort that has taken Mount Saint Michael to the Corn Uí Mhuirí.

‘This will be a reward for what we’ve done over the years,’ he says.

‘We’re not the biggest of schools, number-wise, when you consider where we are in the big towns that we’re in between. But we work hard and we have people who are willing to put in the work, out four evenings a week training with all age groups. 

‘It’s very much like a club when we come into school. We kind of harvest that from the players. It’s their team, they know it’s their team and we just guide them.

‘They do realise very early that their time in school is very short here, and they want to make the most of it, and they want to be successful as well.’

As they step into the world of the Corn Uí Mhuirí, Mount Saint Michael can reflect on their own rise, but they’re not here to make up the numbers either.