MARTINA O’Brien feels the best is yet to come for a Clonakilty team on the rise.
Despite losing the Munster final, the experienced goalkeeper was proud of Clonakilty’s efforts in pushing Ballymacarbry to the limit – she’s confident they’ll learn from this heartbreak and kick on again in 2025.
‘Look, it is hugely disappointing, but Ballymacarbry are a quality side with loads of Waterford inter-county players,’ four-time Cork All-Ireland winner O’Brien stated.
‘Winning 42 Waterford county titles in a row tells you that as well. For us though, we were confident that we could put it up to them.
‘Today, I think we showed ourselves and our supporters, everyone, that we can mix it with the best. The one thing we need is time. We have so many young girls. Our youngest are 16, 17 and 18. Our average age is 20. The next players up are probably around 27 and then there are a couple more of us in our 30s.
‘This will stand to us. It is still utterly disappointing, to be honest. Look, there is something to work on and we know that. That is what we want to build on for next year.
‘We want to be in the senior A section. We were so delighted to win the senior B this year and that is a great testament to the girls and their workrate. It is back to the drawing board now. We want to be pushing higher and hopefully, we take it a step forward next year.
‘I’m hugely proud of the girls and the effort that they gave.’
Ballymacarbry's Maeve Ryan is tackled by Clonakilty's Laura Daly during the AIB Munster Club LGFA senior B final at Mallow on Saturday.
When asked to comment on Clonakilty’s overall progress, O’Brien listed some of the players and their attributes that could help the club kick on next season.
‘Look at our players, no-one outside of Clonakilty would have known their names until this year,’ O’Brien pointed out.
‘Siobhán Callanan was absolutely unbelievable today. Méabh O’Donovan too. All our backs including Niamh Kennedy, Niamh Desmond Collins and Ruth Shanley were so, so good. The average age of those girls is 20. That bodes well for the future. Those girls are our players now and have stepped it up. They only needed a year and they are showing us older girls what to do!
‘The likes of Millie Condon, she is sublime. Everything she does. We have class up front too. Katie (O’Driscoll), Sinéad O’Donovan had another stormer today. Kiya O’Mahony comes on and gives it her all.
‘We have it but we just need to mould it all together. That crowd of young girls won a lot of things at underage. We want them to show us the way forward next year.’
Winning Ballymacarbry captain Sadhbh Hallinan took time to praise Clonakilty’s efforts, too.
‘Look, we are not familiar with playing Clonakilty so we didn’t know what to expect,’ Hallinan said.
‘They really brought it to us today but I think that our experience came out in the end – being calm on the ball showed. Now, the rest will do us good and will be eager to come back again next year.’
