Fr O’Neills journey from Junior to Senior A final: 'We knew how good they were when they were U10'
Fr O'Neills' Eoin Motherway breaks from Bride Rovers' Daniel Dooley and Paddy O'Flynn during the Co-Op Superstores Cork SAHC semi-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Sometimes Séamus Joyce has to pinch himself to believe it. When he was coming of age in the 1970s, Fr O’Neills were a junior club in the most competitive division in the county. Hurling was always alive and well in and around Ladysbridge and Ballymacoda, but the way it’s thriving at the moment is beyond the dreams of even the most optimistic minds according to the PRO.
“Back in the 1970s, we’d no real pitch of our own. We were playing in a field behind the village in Ladysbridge and playing in a field behind the village in Ballymacoda and then there was a pitch up by the Hill cemetery on the Knockadoon road. Then we’d a field over in Aghavine for a couple of years before the local parish came together to put together our home today which is a community field in Aghavine.
“We were ploughing away at Junior A level for the most part before we finally made the breakthrough in 1996 in East Cork. We won the hurling and then we won the football a couple of weeks later and we haven’t looked back since.”
Thirteen is usually associated with bad fortune but it was nothing but good to O’Neills as their hurling breakthrough was their first win in 13 finals between their various incarnations across the years.
“The club was known as O’Brien’s years ago, then there was Ballymacoda, and Fr O’Neills were born in 1959. There was a coming together of the old clubs to pick a name and they went with Fr O’Neills after Fr Peter O’Neill Crowley who died in the Fenian Rising in 1867 and is buried in Ballymacoda.
“In and around 1996 we were starting to produce a few players. There was Brian O’Driscoll who captained Imokilly to the senior county in 1997, then there was Alan Brett and Brian O’Callaghan who was full-back behind Diarmuid O’Sullivan on the Cork minor team of 1996.
“More started coming through then after that with the likes of Billy Murphy, Eoin Conway, and John Flavin while Jerome O’Connell won an All-Ireland minor football medal in 1993 and played on our team in 1996.
“Then in 2005, we made another breakthrough when we beat Kilworth in the Junior county final. We went on to win the Munster and All-Ireland titles too. At that stage, considering where we came from, we felt like pinching ourselves all of the time, I mean it was phenomenal stuff and it was crazy the way it built up a head of steam.
“Then, two years later in 2007, we won the Intermediate county when we beat Bandon above in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Ger O’Leary, who was a serious free-taker, put over a ’65 to win it and the funny thing was, we all thought that the ball that went in from John Flavin that resulted in the ’65 had gone wide.”
For small clubs, success usually brings them to a plateau as the team that gave you the greatest memories ages before your eyes. At the time, the Premier Intermediate hurling grade in Cork was ferociously competitive and O’Neills struggled on their arrival.
“We won the Junior county in 2005 with a very mature team. Then, we won the Intermediate with what would have to be classed as an old team. We struggled then at the higher grade as a result. I did a study at the time about how we were coping as we were thinking about re-grading, and we had only won 21% of our games at the higher level. Fellas that had given so much began retiring and doing other things and we got relegated then in 2010.”
Often, that can be the end of the affair. The cycle is complete, and everybody waits for the next group to arrive who will bring back the golden days. Luckily for Fr O’Neills, they didn’t have to wait too long. In 2018 they beat Midleton in the U21 A county final. Five of that Midleton team are likely starters on Sunday in the Premier final which gives you an idea of the talent that O’Neills possessed. When did they realise that they had such a talented group on their hands?
“We knew how good they were when they were U10. Cian O’Brien from the Glen used run a competition called the Decky Guckian league. That was the preserve of the Glen, the Rockies, the Barrs, Na Piarsaigh, and Midleton and our fellas won it, so we knew then the potential that was there.
“Micheál Broderick, Dan O’Connor, and Robbie Dalton put in great work with them then because they knew what we had. We’d 11 or 12 on the age and every single one of them were able to hurl and they all wanted to hurl.”
They followed 2018 with the Premier Intermediate title and last year they made the Senior A final, losing out to Charleville after an epic contest. They’ve made it back this year and with Ger Millerick and Deccie Dalton struggling with injuries, others have stepped up to the plate as the Fr O’Neills story continues to deliver and Joyce continues to soak it all in.
“I mean, to get back to Croke Park was unreal and Tullaroan lost the semi-final in Kilkenny to O’Loughlin Gaels only recently. The lads were brilliant against Bride Rovers and we’ll be giving it a right go.”
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