Martina O’Brien bids fond farewell to divisional duty after West Cork win

West Cork celebrate their win. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

Signing off in style on Saturday evening was Martina O’Brien.

Clonakilty’s county intermediate final win the weekend before last means goalkeeper O’Brien will not be eligible to line out for West Cork in 2021 — and how grateful she was to depart the divisional set-up with a senior medal in hand.

“The intermediate final with Clon was fantastic. And now this. It has been a week to remember,” said the experienced ’keeper.

“You are on such a high after winning a county with your club. We didn’t expect to win with Clon last week. But today, I really believe that everyone in this panel believed we could win this game. There was a bit more confidence [than previous years]. Thankfully, we came out and we finally did it.”

O’Brien was between the sticks when West Cork came off second best in the 2018 and 2019 county finals against Mourneabbey. To reverse those defeats and finally edge out the All-Ireland club champions in a knockout championship fixture was a “monkey off the back”.

“It has been a monkey on our back for the last two years. They are the ones who have beaten us. We just wanted to get that one win. We managed to come out on top this year, and I do think the girls can drive on from here and just make football great in West Cork.

“As a divisional side, we know this is it for us. There is nothing after the county championship for us so this is all we could focus on. We are just happy to finally get over the line.”

O’Brien’s goalmouth was a hive of activity late on as Doireann O’Sullivan threatened on more than one occasion to land an equalising goal. She was relieved to hear the final whistle.

“There were balls skimming the post. There were one or two moments of panic. They had to go for a goal.

“We were trying to hang onto our lead. Thankfully, we did.”