BY KIERAN McCARTHY
ON paper, the Carbery football team looks exciting, dripping with talent, but selector Sean Levis knows how important the opening game is – the division takes on Muskerry in the county championship this Friday evening in Ovens (7.30pm).
This will be Carbery’s first game of the competition, while Muskerry did defeat Avondhu in the unseeded section back in June, though there is, as ever with divisional teams, uncertainty as to how it will play out.
‘We’ve done a bit, probably would have liked to have done a bit more, but every division will acknowledge how difficult it is to get everyone together. We have had a few training sessions and three or four games, as much as we could have hoped for really,’ explained Levis, who is a selector under new Carbery manager Colm Aherne. Pat Nolan and Sean Murray are also selectors, while Cork minor manager Haulie O’Sullivan is the coach, with Pat Prendergast on board as goalkeeping coach.
‘A lot of the clubs were out last weekend and are out again the weekend after next so they’re in the middle of their championships, so it’s hard to know where we are ahead of Friday. We’re hoping it goes well against Muskerry and we can build some momentum off that, but it’s all dependent on Friday night.
‘Our players are playing at good levels, but so are Muskerry and they’ll have the likes of Chris Óg Jones so they have plenty of quality as well.’
Carbery can call on some familiar names including current Cork senior Ruairi Deane (Bantry Blues), former Cork players Colm and Kevin O’Driscoll (Tadhg MacCarthaigh), and the addition of Kilmacabea forward Damien Gore is a coup for the division. Carbery also have several Ilen Rovers players involved this season, including Dan Mac Eoin, Peter O’Driscoll, Jack Collins and Dermot Hegarty, while Bantry Blues’ Arthur Coakley and Kevin Casey, as well as Dan Twomey (Ballinascarthy) and Sean Daly (Randal Óg) are also involved.
Also in this competition on Friday night, Duhallow play UCC in Mallow, and the winner plays whoever emerges from Carbery v Muskerry – and the seeded final will be played later this month, with the winner advancing to the knockout stage of the county premier senior football championship.
