Corca Dhuibhne hope for change of fortune
As they gear up for another tilt at landing the title in next Sunday’s showdown against De La Salle (Macroom), manager John Flannery is naturally hoping their luck will turn.
“We had huge setbacks before and during the game. We lost our midfielder Shane Griffin before the game through injury, then Pádraig Ó Sé was sent off early in the game and then in the first half as well, Colm Galvin came off with a recurrence of a cruciate injury.
“The massive effort the 14 guys put in caught up on us at the end and a very good Coláiste Chríost Rí side deserved their win.
“It’s great to be back in the final but we have to win this one after the way it went last year.”
They have grown accustomed to observing other Kerry schools setting the pace in the Corn Uí Mhuirí yet now it is the Dingle-based outfit that are the trailblazers for the Kingdom.
“It’s great for football in the area,” says Flannery.
“We’re a close bunch. You’re drawing players mainly from An Ghaeltacht, Dingle and Lispole, with one lad from Annascaul on the panel.
“There are three of us involved in the management team, myself, Muiris MacGearailt and Vinny Flannery. We’re all from West Kerry so we know how important this is.
“The school has won two Moran Cups recently and won nearly all the football cups within Kerry as well. But the Corn Uí Mhuirí is what we’re still trying to get our hands on.
“Two factors have combined for the rise of football in the school. We’re very fortunate with the group of players we have. We had a nice few players back from last year’s team and then we’ve also integrated some very good young guys. There’s also amassive effort put in by the teachers (which includes Kerry U21 manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice) into football in the school.”
Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne have been made to work for their passage to the decider. They were placed in a difficult group that contained a High School Clonmel team packed with Tipperary All-Ireland minor football medallists and a Tralee CBS side backboned by members of last year’s Frewen Cup winning team. “We knew at the start it was going to be tough for us,” outlines Flannery.
“Watching Clonmel against Tralee in the first game told us that. We put up a good score to defeat Clonmel then before losing to Tralee. We’d already qualified so it wasn’t a do-or-die game and then in the quarter-final we were lucky enough against St Flannan’s. It wasn’t an easy game as the conditions were very poor and the venue was changed from Croagh to Abbeyfeale to Rathkeale in a short space of time which didn’t help our preparations.
“But we got over it and heading into the semi-final against Tralee, I felt we were a bit fortunate that we’d lost to them in the group stages. We had beaten them in the O’Sullivan Cup in Kerry at the start of the year and if we’d beaten them twice, then complacency could have set in. The group stage defeat gave us added impetus and we really wanted to beat them in the semi-final.
“The biggest challenge is ahead of us, though. Macroom were very impressive against Críost Rí, who beat us last year, in their semi-final. I’ve noticed they’ve had a very settled team with very few changes. That has stood to them.”
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