BY KIERAN McCARTHY
KATE O’Donovan is confident that O’Donovan Rossa can ace their next test – and, hopefully, finish top of the class in the All-Ireland junior football series.
The Rossas vice-captain – a PE and geography teacher at Skibbereen Community School – has played a central role in their season to savour, as the Skibb side has captured county and Munster honours.
They're not finished yet.
‘Our main goal this year was to win the county junior A title; that’s what we wanted as a group,’ O’Donovan told The Southern Star.
‘As we were going well in the county championship, you do know too there is a Munster and All-Ireland series as well, so when we won the county we knew we had a chance to do something special. We have been taking this very seriously.’
First, let’s rewind to the Cork junior A football final against the Dohenys in October. This is the game the Skibb team had targeted. Twelve months earlier, the Rossas had lost the county final to Naomh Abán, and it stung.
‘We went into this county final after a loss last year. We really wanted to rectify the mistakes we made against Naomh Abán, and we went onto the pitch knowing that we needed that win. You always remember the hurt so we wanted to do everything in our power to make sure we didn’t feel that way again,’ O’Donovan explained. The Skibb forward kicked 0-2 in their emphatic 4-10 to 2-5 win. Mission accomplished on one front, but the door to Munster also swung open.
There were wins over Tipperary’s Loughmore-Castleiney and Clare’s Newmarket-on-Fergus that set up a Munster final in Mallow against Kerry outfit Clounmacon-Moyvane. The Rossas were on a roll by now, and with O’Donovan kicking 0-3 from full forward, they won 0-12 to 1-7.
‘That was fantastic, one of the best feelings in the world. The fact that it was a battle and that we had to dig deep and fight to the very ended added to it because we had to work really hard,’ O’Donovan explained, and she feels the closeness of the provincial final will stand to them ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland club junior championship quarter-finals away against Glasgow Gaels at Clydebank Community Sports Hub (11.30am).
The team will fly out on Friday – split between Cork and Dublin flights to Edinburgh –, stay overnight outside Glasgow, play their All-Ireland quarter-final on Saturday morning before all making the flight home together on Saturday evening.
‘These experiences don’t come around too often so of course we will enjoy the journey, the experience and being with our team-mates, but we have got a glimpse of what could be and that has made us even more determined to go as far as we can in this competition,’ said Leap native O’Donovan, who joined the Skibb club around 2016.
‘This really is a super bunch of girls and I’m so grateful that we can share all these experiences together. Having come up through the ranks with so many of these players it really has been a journey for us and we’re so excited now to continue that journey this season and see where it takes us.’
The excitement is building in Skibbereen Community School, too. O’Donovan started work there in September, so it’s been a hectic period in both her professional and sporting lives – and she’s loving every minute of both. Seven of the Skibb football panel attend the school, so the success of O’Donovan Rossa’s ladies is a hot topic in the classrooms and the staff room.
‘There’s great excitement. I have students coming into the class asking “Miss, are you nervous?”, “Miss, are you excited?”,’ she said, ‘and there is a lovely atmosphere.
‘The support we have got to date has been brilliant. Everything has been painted red and white in Skibb!’
If the Rossas jump their next hurdle, they will have a home All-Ireland semi-final in Skibbereen the following week – and that’s a game this group would love, but they know there’s a job to be done in Scotland this week. That’s their focus. O’Donovan knows better than anyone, to pass a test you need to put in the work, and she’s confident they’ll find the answers they need on Saturday afternoon.
