BY JOHNNY CAROLAN
A NAME change would be apt for the West Cork club in Bon Secours Hospital Cork Premier IFC semi-final action on Saturday.
With opponents Kilshannig usually clad in similar colours, it will be the Bantry Dark Blues who take to the field in Coachford (5pm). It’s fitting for a team from a seaside town to be wearing navy but otherwise Bantry will hope that things are similar to what they have been during the campaign.
After topping a group featuring Iveleary, Macroom and Naomh Abán, Bantry saw off Nemo Rangers in the quarter-final – a result made all the more impressive by the absence of Ruairí Deane.
They would dearly love to have the Cork star available for the clash with the men from Glantane, but it’s too early to say yet if he will be fit.
‘Ruairí didn’t play in the last match and he’s still not training fully,’ says Peter Murphy, a member of the Bantry management.
‘We’ll have to see how he is but it’s probably 50-50 whether or not he’ll be available at the weekend.
‘When it’s Deane, coming from an inter-county set-up, when he tells you he’s not ready, he’s not ready.
‘He hasn’t done much in the last seven weeks so it’s a case of wait and see.’
Having performed well against Iveleary, Bantry got past Naomh Abán and could have taken an automatic semi-final spot if they had beaten Macroom. Ultimately, a draw meant they had to contest a quarter-final – while it wasn’t enough to prevent the Muskerry side from avoiding the relegation play-off – but Murphy feels that the extra game proved beneficial.
‘Maybe drawing with Macroom was a blessing in disguise,’ he says.
‘It meant we had to play a quarter-final, which turned out to be a bit of a help to us. We were able to bring in another couple of players and to improve on things and see where the problems were.
‘If we had got over Macroom by a point or two, we’d have been straight into a semi-final but it could have covered over some cracks and we’d have had a big gap between games.
‘The match against Nemo was good for us, being honest about it.
‘We hadn’t kicked on, so the display the last day was very encouraging – we went back to basics and doing the simple things right. On a bad day, we put up a bit of a score, which is all positive.’
Coming off last year’s final loss to Kanturk, it leaves Bantry in a good place.
‘You can look at two ways,’ he says.
‘You can be disappointed after losing a county final or you can see it as an improvement and try to kick on from it.
‘In fairness to us, it was obviously a disappointing result but it was a big experience and the lads have responded well and are enjoying their football.
‘We are where we wanted to be at the start of the year and it’s all positive.’
Saturday will be a test, though, with Murphy aware of the challenge Kilshannig present.
‘They’re on a big run over the last three or four years,’ he says, ‘the momentum is high and they’re used to winning.
‘You’d imagine that they will be favourites but that run has to stop at some stage, so we’re hoping that that will be this weekend.’
