BY KIERAN McCARTHY
HE sees it every night at training and in every game they play, yet the spirit of this O’Donovan Rossa team never ceases to amaze James O’Donovan.
It was there again in the Skibbereen team’s Munster club intermediate semi-final win last weekend. After watching their lead whittled away by Kerry club Scartaglin, the sides were deadlocked down the home stretch.
Skibb, in front of their home crowd, didn’t panic.
This is a team that has won 20 of their last 21 championship matches, an incredible run stretching back to the start of the 2023 campaign, so they know what to do in the big moments of big games.
O'Donovan Rossa's Sarah Hurley is tackled by Scartaglin's Denise Dunlea during the Munster semi-final at Rossa Park on Saturday.(Photos: Paddy Feen)
They came from a point behind late on to win the 2023 Munster junior final against another Kerry outfit, Clounmacon/Moyvane. The Skibb women held their nerve when trailing in the closing stages of last year’s All-Ireland junior final against Claremorris, before triumphing. Three points down to Naomh Abán in the recent Cork intermediate decider, the ice-cool Rossas stayed calm, rallied and won. So when last weekend’s Munster semi-final was in the balance, manager James O’Driscoll trusted his team to find a way to win. That’s what they do.
Step forward Fionnuala O’Driscoll, who scored the match-winning point, 4-9 to 3-11, and send the Skibb sensations into another Munster final.
‘What pleased me was coming down the stretch the teams were level, Scartaglin had the momentum as they had come back from five down, but we were able to stand up, not panic and keep playing and work a scoring opportunity,’ O’Donovan explained.
‘We worked the ball to the right kicker in the right place to get the score, that comes from experience and playing in big games and not panicking. Hopefully we can do something similar this weekend.’
O’Donovan Rossa will need to call on that spirit again in Mallow in Sunday’s Munster club final against Limerick’s St Ailbes, who hammered Cappawhite 3-15 to 0-3 in their semi-final last weekend. This follows a 5-16 to 0-4 quarter-final victory against Na Deise, so the Limerick senior champions have their own momentum.
‘They are a very strong side with seven or eight inter-county players. They won the senior championship in Limerick and that’s a grade above where we are playing. We’re expecting a huge challenge,’ O’Donovan noted, but he will draw encouragement and confidence from the journey the Skibbereen team has been on these past two seasons. This group, even without a few regulars from last season, has the ability to rise to every challenge in front of them – and they’ll need to again in Mallow on Sunday (1pm).
‘There is a huge spirit in the team, it’s incredible,’ the Skibb boss said.
‘If you look at the team that won the All-Ireland last year, Emma Hurley was a key player for us and she has gone back to Ilen Rovers this season; it means she’s not with us and she’s a very good player. Kate O’Connell, who was working in Madrid, was back and forth, came on in the county final but she’s now in New York working so not available. We have a couple of girls injured too, but we still managed to grind out the win against Scartaglin, the team found a way to win.
‘I honestly put it down to this being such a close, tight-knit group. They will back each other up every single time and fight for each other. It’s the close-knit bond this group has that is delivering the results.’
The only championship game this group has lost in the last two seasons was an intermediate group clash with Valley Rovers, a single point loss, 3-5 to 0-13. When the teams met in the county semi-final the rampant Rossas showed no mercy, winning 3-16 to 0-3. That ability to produce a performance can be traced back to the experiences they’ve had together these past seasons, and James O’Donovan knows they will need to dig deep again against St Ailbes.
‘There will be nerves, of course there will be because it’s a Munster final, but at the same time we know what to expect, and those past experiences will definitely help,’ he said.
‘This team has played in those big days and won on those big days, so that will stand to the group. We still have to deliver the performance on the day, and having had those experiences I think you’re better placed to eliminate the background noise, focus on yourself and your own performance, and I’d be hoping our experience will allow that to happen again.’
It’s a short turnaround from last weekend’s semi-final to this Sunday’s provincial final, and Skibb are sweating over the fitness of Sarah Hurley (knee) and Triona Murphy (ankle). Both players carried injuries into the clash with Scartaglin and both came off in the second half. On the plus side, Fionnuala O’Driscoll’s heroics highlighted another strength of this team – whether it’s Laura O’Mahony or Éabha O’Donovan or O’Driscoll, this team has match-winners.
‘Different players step up and that makes the team too, we are not depending on one player to continuously deliver,’ O’Donovan added, with the belief that a hero will emerge on Sunday to add another glorious chapter to this fairytale story.
