All hands on deck as west Cork clubs squeeze every last drop
FINAL FOUR: Gabriel Rangers' Gerald O'Callaghan and Adrigole's Sean O'Shea go high for the ball during the McCarthy Insurance Group IAFC at Kealkil. Pic: Eddie O'Hare
Every GAA club across the country has its challenges. In the case of rural and remote clubs, the battle to remain an entity and thrive thereafter is not won by magic.
So what's required to ensure a rural club keeps running smoothly from top to bottom? Numbers, community commitment, player buy-in. Many hands make light work comes to mind.
For clubs in the depths of west Cork and Beara, an eye is always kept on the numbers game. For Adrigole GAA club, numbers have been a concern for a while. Population, emigration and internal migration have long been part of the discourse.
Munster Council delegate and Adrigole GAA secretary Joseph Blake sets the scene on the Beara Peninsula.
"The top three challenges would be: Numbers, numbers and numbers," Blake said. "I was looking at a picture of the combined under-5s under-6s in the club, and we had nine players - four girls and five boys.
"We can see coming down the road, we're going to be under massive pressure in terms of our playing numbers. It's not just ourselves, it's all the clubs in Beara and probably along the western seaboard of the country that are facing massive challenges."
The numbers in the local primary schools don't make for pretty viewing in terms of possible player recruitment, either. For Blake, internal migration from Adrigole to Cork city and the surrounding suburbs over the years - due to lack of employment in the wider Beara area - has been a contributing factor.
That underage strife, however, is not currently mirrored at the adult level in Adrigole, where their top team operates at the Intermediate 'A' level.
Blake stresses that this is down to the commitment of players to put their time and effort into a club that has had its role in raising them.
Adrigole can't afford it not to be this way, as Blake notes, they have to "push to the maximum" and "squeeze every last drop out of themselves" to be in the position they are in adult football.
"We've fielded three (adult) teams in championship. We've had 52 adult players who togged out in championship this year for Adrigole. That's going across our intermediates, Junior B and Junior C teams. Our Junior C team age-range was from 18 to one person who will be 55 in December.
"We're having to operate at 100% level, to try and compete at the level we're at. We have a couple of lads, I know their bags are packed and once championship is over, they're heading on the plane to Australia."
Added Blake: "Hopefully in a couple of years time, they'll come back, but they're going to be a loss to us."
This weekend is a special one for the club. A Beara Junior B football semi-final will be contested on Sunday, with the main event taking place on Saturday - the Cork Intermediate 'A' football championship semi-final clash with Boherbue.
The hunt for Intermediate glory has "extra significance for the club" given the fact that the cup is named after John Lock O’Sullivan, an Adrigole legend, who died in 2002.
The effort needed to get to this stage can be illustrated by the miles travelled by Adrigole players since the start of the football year. That effort is nothing new. It's a must given the club's 100km-plus distance from the employment and education hub that is Cork city.
"We have lads in college in Limerick, but we have a lot in Cork," Blake said. "Up until summertime, the lads would be training midweek in Macroom, and they're back in Macroom again because lads are back in college. So there could be a Friday night in Adrigole, midweek in Macroom and back for a weekend session or game in Adrigole."
Adrigole are not the only team based down west gearing up for a Cork IAFC semi-final this Saturday. Gabriel Rangers are on the other side of the draw, where they face city outfit Glanmire.
So what challenges do the Ballydehob/Schull-based club share with their Adrigole counterparts?
Underage numbers aren't a concern at the moment for club stalwart and current chairman Mark Cronin, 38, who will form part of a potent forward line at the weekend. Their main challenge is that migration to Cork city - and beyond - and the travel that comes with it.
How do you work past that obstacle? A good setup, community support and a genuine want from players to give their all for the club are paramount for Cronin.
"There's a lot of lads away, about 15 living in Cork," Cronin said. "They're all travelling down twice a week, leaving at half five, six o'clock and they're not home 'til half eleven, twelve some nights, but they don't complain once. It's a case of 'name the place and we'll be there'.
"To be fair to the club, we have sandwiches and soup provided from the local shops Camier's Gala and Brosnan's Centra, every week. Whatevever we want, they'll get, just to make sure (the players) are going home happy and not hungry."
Cronin continued: "We have a great setup as well, we have a great manager, Mike O'Brien, and a big backroom team, who are all very good in fairness."
The aforementioned player commitment has been embodied of late in the commuting efforts of former Cork under-20 footballer Paddy O'Driscoll, who has travelled home from France - where he is on Erasmus - every weekend to put his shoulder to the wheel for his club and community.
"He's seriously committed," Cronin says of his young teammate.
That kind of effort has led O'Brien's side to a county semi-final where all roads lead to Clonakilty.
Cill na Marta will be the destination for the Beara men. There won't be many left in the village, insists Adrigole man and former Cork PRO Blake.
"There is maybe only 320-340 people living in our parish, and we have just as much support as anybody when we go matches," he said. "We're all in this together, anybody who is physically able to be in Cill na Marta on Saturday will be there. There won't be too many left at home."
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