IT’S natural that Kilmacabea’s rise to becoming the most successful junior football team in West Cork in the past decade has changed their mindset. Four Carbery junior A football titles in eight seasons (2017 to ’24) has left them wanting more – the county title is now the target.
‘Going back a few years ago, getting out of Carbery seemed impossible, whereas now the immediate goal is to win West Cork,’ explained Kilmacabea manager Donie O’Donovan who has been involved in all four Carbey JAFC successes, as a player in 2017, ’18 and ’20, and now as a manager.
‘Winning West Cork isn't easy, there are a lot of good teams in this division and it’s the hardest one to win. We don’t take it for granted that we have won four in eight years, because those days might not last very long,’ he added, though as this group develops, the targets become bigger.
‘We are a junior club with aspirations to push the club a bit higher,’ O’Donovan said.
He points to Kilmacabea’s first county junior A championship run in 2017, the club on a high after winning the Mick McCarthy Cup for the first time. Their first game outside Carbery was a 1-7 to 0-4 win against Kilworth in Blarney; there was a novelty to it, a newness. They beat White’s Cross next, before losing the semi-final to Erin’s Own after a replay.
‘It was different, something new,’ O’Donovan noted, ‘When we lost we were disappointed but at the same time we had a great year and were delighted with the season we had. Now it’s a bit different.’
They’re treating this season’s McCarthy Insurance Group JAFC as another championship they want to win. Inniscarra are next up in the semi-final this Sunday in Ahiohill (2pm). Whereas back in 2017, the county series was bonus territory, the mindset is a lot different now.
‘We have been here before, and if we lose we would be disappointed. We have aspirations of winning it, like the other three teams left have,’ O’Donovan said. As standards rise, so too do the expectations.
‘The group, and the club, would like to move on a bit, but that doesn’t happen just like that.
‘We have next-door neighbours (Castlehaven) who are thinking about winning All-Irelands at senior level and we have our own aspirations and targets, and we want people to be proud walking down the street.’
Kilmacabea manager Donie O'Donovan.
The challenge of taking Kilmacabea to the next level – into the county premier junior grade – was one that appealed to O’Donovan, who took over as manager of his home club this season. The now 43-year-old trained with this team last season, but didn't feature in the championship, as he moves towards the end of his playing career. He did line out with Kilmacabea’s second team last season, and even this year, but his powers of recovery aren’t what they once were.
‘I remember playing a junior 3 game last year after we were out of the junior 1 championship, there was a few talks about me taking over the junior 1 team. I said to the chairman we have a junior 3 game coming up, I’ll play that and see how we get on – I was half crocked after that so I knew my football days were kinda finished,’ O’Donovan said, as he stepped outside the white line and in charge of a dressing-room he had been part of. That can have its difficulties though he points out he was always on the older scale as a player so it made the transition easier. What also helped is Kilmacabea stamped their class all over the championship, from their first group win against Castlehaven on July 27th through to the final against Diarmuid Ó Mathúnas on October 26th. They were the class act. Backboned by stalwarts who know what it’s like to win West Cork, it’s familiar names like Martin Collins, Diarmuid O’Callaghan, Donnacha McCarthy, Damien Gore, Ruairi Hourihane and Daniel O’Donovan who show experience counts.
Losing the Carbery final to Barryroe after extra time last year was also a motivation for the group, as O’Donovan took charge of a team ready to go that extra bit to get their hands on the prize.
‘I’m not sure hurt is the right word to describe how the group felt after last year’s final,’ O’Donovan explained.
‘We had great success in 2017 and ’18, and into 2020. We were beaten resoundingly by Iveleary in the county championship semi-final (2020) and then the next couple of years there was a fear that our time was done, but getting to the final last season showed us that we are as good as what’s there.
‘We lost to a very good Barryroe team, and coming away it wasn't so much about disappointment but the realisation that if we worked even a little bit harder, we are still there with a good chance.
‘I don’t think it was a feeling of hurt, more so knowing that we still have a lot to offer, that our time isn’t done yet. We felt we still had a chance to do something.’
Taking over a group on a mission, it was O’Donovan’s job to give them the tools and the belief that they could go even further in 2024. Mission accomplished. Well, sort of. Emerging from Carbery is part one. Now we’re at the business end of part two: the county semi-final against Inniscarra. Kilmacabea moved well in the first half of their county quarter-final win against Douglas, but know they need to raise their levels again. They’ve lost two Cork JAFC semi-finals (2017 and ’20) and were defeated in the 2018 county final too. The next step is to return to a county junior A final, and they have that opportunity on Sunday. This is the one they really want.
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Both McCarthy Insurance Group JAFC semi-finals are this Sunday – 2pm, Inniscarra v Kilmacabea in Ahiohill; 3.15pm, Castlemartyr v Ballygarvan in Pairc Ui Rinn.
