Striving to be the best in the west

Since winning Cork’s intermediate football championship in 2005, Carbery Rangers’ stock has risen gradually.

Two senior semi-final appearances, both defeats to Castlehaven, were improved upon last year as they reached the final, where they fell against Ballincollig.

Tonight in Skibbereen (7.15pm), the Rosscarbery club resume the quest to make it back to the decider as they meet Ilen Rovers.

Manager Micheál ‘Haulie’ O’Sullivan admits that the increase in status has coincided with other clubs seeing them as a scalp.

“Without a doubt, we’ve definitely noticed that in the league this year,” he says.

“Sometimes, if teams have county players they’d play away without them but we’ve noticed that teams are bringing their strongest outfit to play us, which is a compliment in a lot of ways.

“It’s better preparation for us, it’s good to be seen as a scalp but then last year was last year.”

Ross lost to a late Valley Rovers fightback in the first round but then beat Clyda Rovers a fortnight later. The early defeat wasn’t the blow to confidence that it might have appeared from the outside, however.

“We weren’t beating ourselves up over the Valleys game,” O’Sullivan says. “We performed very well for 50 minutes and took our foot off the gas for the last 10 and got caught with a last-minute penalty.

“We didn’t become a bad team overnight and we weren’t going to fearing anybody we met in the second round. We weren’t going to dwell on that game.”

Ilen and Ross have had similar trajectories from junior to senior . Ilen reached a final first - in 2007 - before plateauing but O’Sullivan isn’t taking anything for granted just because of better recent showings.

“They won the junior in 2001 and we won it in ’03,” he says, “then they won the intermediate in ’03 and we won it in ’05. At the time, they were probably better prepared for senior than we were, they had more players who were at the right age. From year to year, you don’t really know, you see at least one or two teams make the quarter- or semi-finals that you mightn’t have expected at the start of the year. Other teams you’re expecting to challenge fall away then. Every year is different, you can’t be taking anything for granted, you have toe xpect a tough challenge every day you go out.”

Tomorrow sees another West Cork derby in the Cork SFC as Skibbereen’s O’Donovan Rossa clash with Beara in Bantry at 3.30pm.

For Beara, it’s a first appearance in the last 16 in a decade. Coach Finbarr Harrington is keen for the divisional side to make the most of the opportunity after a good win against UCC last time out. “It has been a great lift for us to make the last 16, the first time since 2005,” he says. “We were there or thereabouts all the time and we always ended up losing by a point or two. The hardest job witha divisional or college team is that the first couple of games of the year are unbelievably difficult.

“Clubs are focusing on their own championships and trying to get over the first round, they have their own pressures as well. The key with any divisional side is to get over the first game, we were lucky enough to do that this year.

“We got a good start on Seandún back in Ballingeary early on in the year – it almost seems like a lifetime ago now! – and we gained a bit of momentum then going into the UCC game. On the night, it was a draw after full-time, it was a draw at half-time in extra time and we just pulled away in the end with a few points, we were delighted to come away with that win.”

Of all the divisions, Beara arguably have the strongest collective identity and Harrington will look to harness that in what he acknowledges will be a tough task. “For many years, Beara has been a proud division and a strong footballing side,” he says. “We’ve punched well above our weight for a long time, we’re a small division, we’re unique in that all the clubs are out on the peninsula.

“From that point of view, we’d be very close, everybody would know each other and all the clubs would know each other. When the clubs play, there’s no quarter given but when you put on the Beara jersey it’s special, everybody wants to wear it.

“Skibb won an U21 title a few years ago, they’re very well organised, they’re fast, they’re really committed and they’re a very good footballing side. It’s a west Cork derby, we’re expecting a big crowd and I can’t see a whole pile between the teams at the end of it, to be honest.”