Aghinagh football rises up and savours the view

Last week in Macroom, Aghinagh ended a 73-year wait for a first Mid Cork Junior A title 

2nd November 2021.... Aghinagh players celebrate after defeating Ballincollig in the Muskerry JAFC final at Macroom. 

Aghinagh captain Matthew McCarthy described it as ‘surreal’ and it’s as good a word as any for the moment when a history of setbacks and disappointment are eclipsed by one golden night in November.

These weren’t McCarthy’s setbacks. They were the cumulative sufferings of Aghinagh’s junior footballers and the four small parishes they represent - without a Junior A football title in Mid Cork for their entire 73 years of existence. A community bounded by the River Lee to the south and the Bogeragh Mountains to the north, and imprisoned by their own failures.

“We were craving this,” says Ger Coakley, a former player and principal of Rusheen NS, one of three nurseries in the community with Ballinagree and Ballyvongane schools. “This was an albatross around our necks. So many other clubs in Muskerry – Eire Óg, Cill na Martra, Canovee – had won this and progressed to higher grades and we were left looking at each other: ‘How come we can’t win it?’"

Last week in Macroom, Aghinagh righted the big wrong, beating Ballincollig’s second string by six points, 1-12 to 0-9. When the now club president Dan O’Connor sat in a committee room in Bawnmore as a teenager with fellow founding fathers of the club in 1949, he can’t have dreaded he’d be in his nineties when a Muskerry junior title would eventually come to the parish.

Aghinagh GAA president Dan O'Connor and his family celebrate with the Mid Cork JAFC title, finally annexed by Aghinagh after 73 years of trying

Last Wednesday morning, the players arrived to his home in Lyroe. Though Covid protocols limited interaction with him, everyone understood the historic significance of the moment. Surreal.

The difficulty for Aghinagh’s footballers is getting back to the real world of the Cork Junior AFC quarter-final against Duhallow winners Boherbue in Pairc Ui Rinn Tuesday evening (7.30pm). 

But in trainer Danny Buckley, brought in from neighbouring Aghabullogue, they have a kindred spirit whose balance of stick and carrot has been a primary factor in their annus mirabilis. 

“A brilliant man manager,” said skipper McCarthy.

“He’s had a profound influence,” Ger Coakley agrees. “The players love him but he’s not taking any messing. He has them playing a good brand of football they enjoy. They had two nights with the cup last week, and since it’s been back to brass tacks.” 

Coakley’s brother Denis is a selector with John O’Leary and Jerome Twohig, whose son Liam bagged 1-11 of his side’s total in the Ross Oil Muskerry final. “We put a fencing up around the field last year and when you hear the rattle of the ball off it, you know it’s Liam practising his frees.” 

He was perfection from seven placed balls against Ballincollig and added 1-4 from play.

Unless you’d good reason, you mightn’t even find your way to Aghinagh without satellite help. Its accumulated villages of Ballinagree (Thady Quill and all), Bealnamorrive, parts of Carrigadrohid and Rusheen sit a few miles northeast of Macroom. The three schools feed into the juvenile section and Aghinagh does its best to maintain them through to the adult grades. 

There’s been false starts and dawns. They’ve made four previous Mid Cork finals, the most recent in 2019, a demoralising loss to Iveleary. That 14-point defeat left many in the club wondering were they doomed to eternal failure?

“We seemed to be closer back in the day when stronger clubs were in the competition,” Ger Coakley said Monday. “And that was our greatest anxiety last week, the prospect of losing another opportunity to get the monkey off our backs. But there’s been something different this year, the management set-up deserves a serious amount of credit for changing the mindset. And making us winners, finally.” 

Aghinagh suffered before. In the 1960s the club ground to a halt but a new curate, Fr. Anthony Cronin, rallied the community. Aghinagh won a juvenile championship in 1970 and the club took flight. They won a Junior B title in 1973, but until last Tuesday, the silver symbol that matters in Muskerry eluded them. A glance at the club’s social media platforms speaks to the craving for that first title.

“We have some following at every championship match, and you hear the crowds egging you on,” Matthew McCarthy said afterwards. “Even before the games, going through any of the villages, the flags and the bunting, it creates a buzz and gets you going for the game.” 

It’s a recurring theme. Toil and persistence. Success has a thousand fathers, but Aghinagh’s never been short of kind, caring hands. The manager Danny Buckley is well placed to offer an outsider’s perspective. He had the good sense to excuse himself after the initial frenzy of celebrations and watch the emotional aftermath from the dugout in Macroom. He knew this was a moment in time.

“Situations like this are special. When you are with your own club (Aghabullogue), you are so involved there’s no time or space to step back. So it was nice to see the tears of joy it brought to so many people in Aghinagh.

“It’s not like we didn’t speak about never winning the Junior A title because we did. But there are a lot of young fellas on this current team, and they’re not around long enough to be laden with that baggage. Look at TJ Buckley, he’s 18 and this was his first year playing junior football with Aghinagh. And he’s won a Mid Cork title. What’s all this fuss about history?” 

Except it is history. And there will always be that fabulous fuss now.