Easy to see why Glanmire keen to keep Tomás Ó Sé on board
DEFIANT: Glanmire went down swinging in the final round of the Cork IFC, beating Aghabullogue by five points, and leaving manager Tomás Ó Sé rueing their second-round loss to Mitchelstown. Pic: Stephen McCarthy, Sportsfile
If it was to be Tomas Ó Se’s swansong as Glanmire football manager, then Saturday’s 4-8 to 1-12 Cork IFC win over Aghabullogue proved a fitting way to sign off before the Kerry legend takes up a coaching role with John Maughan’s Offaly next season.
Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to rescue a quarter-final berth for Glanmire but it was a performance in Ballyanly full of typical O Se energy, determination and defiance.
Glanmire joined Group A winners Mitchelstown and Aghabullogue on four points but their heavy Round 2 loss to Mitchelstown – described by O Se as their ‘dark day of the year’ was their undoing, and they went out on points difference.
Nothing is decided yet on O Se’s future with Glanmire but club officials are keen to keep him, and it’s easy to see why on the basis of this performance. Aghabullogue advance but at one stage in the second half on Saturday they trailed Glanmire by nine points (3-7 to 0-7) and their progress looked in serious peril. Manager Connie Lucey admitted that complacency seemed to be a problem for his side: “We beat them in Championship last year and that seemed to be a performance of fellas saying we should do the same this time around. But we saw today what happens when your attitude isn’t right. We need to mature a little bit as a team,” he said.
Had Dan Molden converted a second half penalty for Glanmire and turnovers not been so costly at crucial moments, Aghabullogue’s plight might have been even more desperate as word filtered through that Mitchelstown were beating Kildorrery comfortably in the other group game. It meant Glanmire needed at least an eleven-point victory and a hat-trick of goals from corner forward Luke Hackett gave them every chance. However, the penalty miss (in effect, a six-point swing) plus a tidy 46th-minute finish from Aghabullogue’s Luke Casey extinguished Glanmire’s hopes of advancing.
O Se gathered his players in afterwards and there were several rounds of applause audible from the group as he spoke: “It’s been a great season for us. We’ve only lost one competitive game all season. We knew today that winning by 11 points was a big ask after the Mitchelstown loss, which was the only dark day of the season for us. Strangely ten minutes into the second half it looked like we could have a good cut off it but they got 1-2 before the water break and that finished us really. But we won the game, the management and players wanted that, we finished the year on a high so it was a good way for Glanmire to wrap things up.”
From their excellent keeper Oisin Barry to the handful that is Michael Cussen at full forward, they oozed defiance from the early stages when a quickly-played free put Hackett in for the opening goal.
Aghabullogue’s inside threat of Casey and Matthew Bradley kept them level to the break, but when Hackett palmed in a second goal straight from the restart, Glanmire took over. On 39 mins, Hackett completed his hat-trick and Cussen grabbed a fourth late on, but ultimately it was in vain.
L Hackett (3-0), M Cussen (1-2), D Molden (0-3, 2 frees), J Crowley (0-2), EW Murphy (0-1).
: M Bradley (0-7, 1 free), L Casey (1-3, 1 free), D Thompson (0-2, 1 free).
O Barry; D Keneally; J Kelleher; B Murphy; C Neligan; E Murphy; D Murray; D Lonergan; K Murphy; EW Murphy; D Molden; T Leahy; L Hackett; M Cussen; J Crowley.
: C McCarthy for EW Murphy; J Murphy for D Lonergan; J Gibson for D Keneally; C O’Donovan for J Crowley.
J Buckley; J Corkery; S O’Sullivan; P Twomey; J Murphy; P Ring; A Murphy; S Tarrant; E O’Sullivan; P O’Sullivan; D Thompson; D Quinlan; L Casey; M Bradley; C O’Sullivan.
B Casey for J Murphy; B Dineen for S Tarrant; N Barry-Murphy for D Quinlan; I Barry-Murphy for C. O'Sullivan;
: S Scanlon
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