DONIE O’Donovan believes Kilmacabea’s decision to move up from the Carbery league to Division 7 of the county league will help them in their quest to retain their division title later in the summer.
‘We were offered the opportunity to go up so we took it with both hands,’ O’Donovan explained.
‘We could have stayed in the Carbery league but if you want to improve your game, you go up in the county.’
Kilmacabea recently beat Inniscarra (0-15 to 0-11) in the league, and it followed on from a draw in their opener against St James (1-13 to 0-16), so it’s been a strong start to the campaign – they are third in Division 7 ahead of an away game against Castlemagner on Sunday morning. O’Donovan has no doubt that stepping up a grade was the right thing to do in order to improve their standards.
‘As regards stepping up a grade now in the league, we had a great game against St James and it was definitely a step up in pace than the Carbery league. It would be nice to do well in this league, to move along in it,’ he said.
‘There is a bonus now to winning the Carbery league this season as the winner will play in a county play-off to go up. That wasn’t the case in the past as there was no reward for winning.’
Looking forward to this season’s Carbery junior A championship, O’Donovan has no illusions about how tough a campaign it will be in their efforts to retain their title. They have been drawn in Roinn 2 with Argideen Rangers, Kilmeen and Randal Óg, with the top two to advance to the quarter-finals.
‘Randals should have beaten us last year and they’ll enjoy a crack off us again this year. We played Kilmeen and we played Argideen last year and both were tight games,’ the Kilmacabea boss said.
‘We’re relying on the same panel this season, more or less. We have young Mark McCarthy but he is not allowed to play in this league but can play in the championship. That’s a big drawback as he could get experience in this league, get used to the pace of the game.’
The ageing profile of his Kilmacabea team is a worry for the manager but he believes in the younger players to deliver and fill in the gap. Numbers and injuries could be a major problem.
‘Daniel (O’Donovan) is back in action for us. He still has loads of football in him. Our numbers are always tight and we need to encourage everybody to play. Just like Ruairí (Hourihane), who came down from Galway for the Inniscarra game,’ O’Donovan said.
‘As regards the West Cork, it’s my head on the block if we don’t win the title again as most of our supporters expect. At the end of the day, we all want to win the West Cork and then go on to win the county but do we have the numbers and the panel to do it? That’s the big question. Maybe we don’t but we’ll go out and give it our best shot.’
So, as Kilmacabea face into a new season, the team with a target on their backs here in West Cork, what teams does O’Donovan fear most in their quest for their fifth title in nine years?
‘When it comes to the favourites to win the title, I’d always be worried about Ross and Castlehaven, especially in the early rounds. As they go on, they lose numbers to senior but they are always a threat. They have a lot of good young players coming through,’ O’Donovan said.
‘Colum’s are a team that really impressed me at U21 level but it may be a bit too early for them. Bal always shape up but the hurling usually takes preference as the season goes on. They have been knocking on the door for a while and would probably love to win it. Mathúnas went to the final last year and who would have predicted that at the beginning of the season?’
With young players like Liam McCarthy, Killian Whelton, Dara Tobin and Liam Tobin, it offers hope for the future, and a good run in the county league can set Kilmacabea up for the championship battles later in the season.
