BY NOEL HORGAN
PERHAPS no player savoured Goleen’s historic triumph more than Daniel O’Driscoll.
At 35 years of age, the hard-working centre-forward is in his 19th season involved with the club’s junior side, and he’s not finished yet.
‘I’ll have to talk to the family about it, but it will be hard to turn down junior A football next year, so I expect I’ll be able to give the required commitment for another season at least,’ he said.
While obviously delighted with the long-awaited county junior B title success, O’Driscoll revealed he was quietly confident Goleen would garner the glory, even if Ballyphehane were always likely to provide a major stumbling block to their aspirations.
‘We were in great form throughout the campaign, winning all our games fairly comfortably, but we knew Ballyphehane, who had a great battle with Plunkett’s in the final last year, would be a much tougher nut to crack,’ O’Driscoll said.
‘That the game went to extra-time speaks for itself, but we have an unbelievable bench this year, and that was the main difference today, I thought.
‘All the lads who came on, including John Cullinane who is around longer than I am, did their bit to get us the win that makes the long wait very much worthwhile now.’
O’Driscoll’s remarks were shared by corner-forward Tadgh Cullinane, who did much to set Goleen on the road to victory in the first period of extra-time, scoring a fine point and going tantalisingly close with an effort for a goal that came back off the crossbar.
‘There’s no doubt in my mind, we’ve never gone into a county final with a panel as strong as this,’ he said.
‘The five or six players we brought in all made an impact, and the way football has gone today, it showed that if you have a strong bench, it will count for a lot.’
Padraig Reidy captain of the Goleen team raises the trophy after his team's victory over Ballyphehane in the McCarthy Insurance JBFC final at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday evening.
Cullinane played his first football game at junior level with Goleen when he was 16 years of age, and he admitted he has endured more than his share of disappointment over the past nine or ten seasons.
‘We’ve definitely gone through more heartache than joy, so it’s hard to put into words how much today’s victory means to us,’ he said.
‘Although we lost to Ballyphehane in a group stage match last year, we were confident in our own ability coming into this one, and we wanted to win it as much for our supporters as for ourselves.
‘I firmly believe we always have 16 players on the pitch because our supporters are so good, although we lost our biggest one, Laura O’Mahony, who passed away with cancer on 26th March, this year. She was a very important woman in the community, and I’m sure she’s looking down on us with a huge smile on our face after today,’ remarked a clearly emotional Cullinane.
The distinction of collecting the trophy fell to Padraig Reidy, who described it as a tremendous honour to captain a team from such ‘a great little parish’ as Goleen.
‘I’m so proud of the players, the management and all our supporters, who’ve endured so much heartache coming up here over the last few years,’ Reidy said.
‘We’re a very closely-knit group, from the oldest player to the youngest there‘s a massive bond there,’ said the team skipper, who, at 26, is in his eighth year operating at junior level.
‘In such a small parish as Goleen, as soon as you are good enough, you go straight into the team regardless of how young you are. I’m especially pleased for the longer serving members of the squad that we got over the line this time.
‘In contrast to previous years, we were experienced and mature enough to survive a stern test, we never panicked at any stage, we stuck to the plan laid out by the management, which, in the final analysis, was the key.
‘We’ll be junior A next year, and hopefully this win will be the springboard to drive us on to greater things,’ Reidy concluded.
