BY KIERAN McCARTHY
MARK White has crunched the numbers and is confident Clonakilty have what it takes to pass their toughest test of the season this Sunday.
By day, he’s an audit senior with EY Cork in the city. Outside of work, the six-foot four-inch goliath is Clonakilty’s senior football captain and the best sweeper-keeper in the county by a distance, adding an extra dimension to their set-up. White will also be central to Clon’s hopes of beating the aristocrats of Cork club football, Nemo Rangers, in Sunday’s McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC quarter-final in Bandon (2.15pm, live on TG4).
‘There is no point in playing if you don’t think you are good enough to win games like these,’ he says.
‘We have that confidence in ourselves, that if we do perform well and perform how we are capable, there is no reason we can’t have a go off anyone.’
The key word White emphasises is ‘perform’. To have any chance of surprising serial contenders Nemo, Clon need to perform. They know the level they have to reach to defeat a Nemo side that has beaten Clonakilty in the previous two championships, albeit by only a point on each occasion – a 0-8 to 0-7 group defeat in 2022 was followed by the battle in Bandon last season, Nemo winning 0-5 to 0-4 in a quarter-final played in a monsoon.
‘It feels like we play Nemo every year,’ White quips, ‘but we know them well and what they’re all about. They have been one of the top three teams for years but we are focussing on ourselves to get that performance that we know we are capable of.’
There were signs in their crucial group hammering of St Michael’s, 2-18 to 1-6, that Clonakilty are moving in the right direction after mixed performances in the opening loss to Castlehaven and the disappointing draw against Carbery Rangers. Taking one point from the first two games backed Clon into a must-win scenario against St Michael’s – and Martin O’Brien’s team delivered in style. A result and performance to build on.
‘When the pressure was on – and it was either qualify for the quarter-final or be possibly in a relegation play-off – it was good that we didn’t just scrape over the line, instead we won convincingly and showed we are well capable of performing so we need to do that more consistently now,’ he insists.
‘We got the result we needed and the performance really helps the confidence after what happened in the Ross game,’ he adds, a reference to losing a six-point lead in the second half in the draw against Carbery Rangers. That stung. But they found the right response against St Michael’s to inject new life into their campaign.
After winning the Division 2 county league title, and promotion to the top tier for 2025, there was an expectation that Clonakilty would challenge the established three (Castlehaven, St Finbarr’s and Nemo Rangers) in the championship, but those early performances against Castlehaven and Carbery Rangers suggested otherwise. That’s why the showing against St Michae’s matters to this group – it was the performance they targeted, and then delivered. They need consistency from here on if they want to emulate their 2021 campaign that saw them contest the final.
‘It’s about being consistent going into this time of the year,’ White says.
‘A lack of consistency leading into the last 15 minutes of the game against Carbery Rangers left them back in to get a result. Against Michael’s, we knew we needed to perform across the 60 minutes, not just in patches, and we did that. We need that and more now against Nemo.’
Ten players who featured against St Finbarr’s in the 2021 county final played against St Michael’s, so there’s an experienced core there including White’s older brother Sean, Thomas Clancy, Maurice Shanley, David Lowney, Ben Ridgeway and Dan Peet. They were also the third highest scorers in the group stage with 4-39, and only Castlehaven (3-50) and the Barrs (7-32) scored more, so Clon carry an attacking threat – Darragh Gough (2-9, 5f) and Conor Daly (0-13, 6f) lead their scoring charts, with 13 different scorers in their three games.
Then there’s Mark White who, now 26 years old, is still regarded by many as the best goalkeeper in the county. His ability to become Clon’s 15th outfield player by joining moves is well known, and Clonakilty football guru Haulie O’Neill previously hailed White ‘as good as any inter-county keeper in the country.’ He opted off the inter-county scene ahead of the 2022 season, but the door isn’t fully closed.
‘This is my third year concentrating fully on Clon, so from the league going into the summer and into the championship season, it’s enjoyable,’ he says, before adds, ‘I am focusing on Clon now. If the time comes over the next couple of months where things change, I’ll put my hand up and see if it’s a possibility. At the moment it’s all about Clon and trying to get a few more games this season.’
To progress beyond Sunday, Clonakilty need their best performance of the season. White feels it’s in them. It’s time to deliver.
