Daly’s Knocknagree bid to continue ‘miracle’ march

Fri, 04 Sep, 2020 - 07:05

Eoghan Cormican

Win or lose tomorrow at Mourneabbey, progress to the knockout stages or not, it won’t make a jot of difference to the rude state of health Knocknagree currently enjoys.

According to the club’s premier intermediate football manager John Fintan Daly, Knocknagree are the first club in the history of Duhallow GAA to field three adult championship teams in the one season, a feat they have managed in 2018, 2019, and again this year.

Whether or not Daly’s claim is indeed true is not what should be focused on, rather Knocknagree’s ability to put out teams at premier intermediate, junior A, and junior B level when the total population of the village which sits half a mile east of the River Blackwater on the Cork-Kerry border is no more than 600.

“I call it the miracle of the loaves and fishes,” quips Daly ahead of tomorrow’s make-or-break premier intermediate fixture against Group B table-toppers Cill na Martra.

“We played St Vincent's on July 26 in the premier intermediate championship. We used 17 players that day. The following Friday, July 31, we played Duhallow junior A championship and we used another 18 players there. Two days later, Sunday, August 2, we took on Ballydesmond in the Duhallow junior B championship.

“In the space of seven days, 56 footballers played championship for Knocknagree. We have a population of 600. Nobody can believe we are doing this, and we've done it for three years now.

“We knew that when we were promoted from junior to intermediate our second team would be Junior A. We also had an eye on the possibility of putting out a junior B team. There is such a deep sense of pride in our club jersey that we had four or five guys over the age of 40 turn out for the junior B game at the beginning of August just to be able to say we could put out a third team.

“I had two guys travel down from Dublin for that junior B game, hired a car to come down on the day of the match just to make up the team. That's the kind of loyalty that exists within the club.

“Whether we win or lose this summer, and we could be going out on Saturday, we have achieved a fair deal by keeping a committed group together.”

Knocknagree currently lie second in Group B of the Cork PIFC, one point behind Cill na Martra and two clear of Naomh Abán. Should they fail to take anything from tomorrow’s game and Naomh Abán manage a win over St Vincent’s, then it is Naomh Abán who will finish second and progress to the knockout stages.

Had the new Cork county championship format not been revised to allow for only two teams - as opposed to three initially - to come out of each group, Knocknagree would already be sure of their place in the next round. But Daly prefers that there is a cut-throat feel entering this weekend’s final round of group games. Such a competitive edge has been missing from the early rounds of the Cork championship for too long.

“Credit is due to Kevin O’Donovan for grasping a very difficult nettle which has been in Cork GAA for years, that is that clubs didn't want to hear about relegation, they didn't want to hear about being able to justify playing in a grade they weren't fit for. The standard was gone down because it wasn't competitive enough and there were too many mismatches. You don't fix it overnight but he is fixing it.

“You'll find there will be far fewer mismatches into the future. Teams will be a lot closer. That then benefits Cork football as a whole.”