Coakley and Carrigaline eye instant rebound to top tier

Niall Coakley transferred to St Jude’s in Dublin in 2015, the year of Carrigaline’s Premier IFC triumph. That was tough.

Sat, 26 Oct, 2024 - 07:00

Therese O’Callaghan

Niall Coakley moved to Dublin for work in January 2014. He trained with St Jude’s but continued to play football with his home club in Carrigaline. That year they were beaten by Valley Rovers in the semi-final.

He transferred to St Jude’s in 2015, the year of Carrigaline’s Premier IFC triumph. He takes up the story.

“I broke my ankle in the first league game with St Jude’s in 2015 and ended up tearing my medial ligament when I came back. I probably played three and a half games for Jude’s and the club at home won the Premier intermediate final. It was a tough year.

“Don’t get me wrong, I was delighted for the lads that won - Nicholas Murphy and Peter and all them lads, and Mick Meaney of course.

“With St Jude’s, we were beaten in two county finals in 2018 and 2021 - 2021 really hurt and still hurts to a degree. We were leading in the whole game and Kilmacud Crokes got two points in injury time to beat us. Heartbreaking.”

He relocated back to Cork when he and his wife had their daughter Lily, she is three now.

“I still have to go to Dublin every week for a few days. I was off for the first five months this year on paternity leave when we had our second daughter Ella, so that was a help for training. Last year was my first year back with Carrigaline.

“Relegation was disappointing. In a way we feel we should have stayed up. In the first game Mallow got two late goals. At the same time it is hard to have complaints.

“People might look at this year saying it’s as simple as Carrigaline went down a grade. But it’s not really. The team is different from last year. Obviously the big one is Brian O’Driscoll joining us. We have David Griffin, who was only playing hurling last year, he is a savage footballer. We have other fellas who have improved dramatically year on year, talking about the likes of Eoghan Landers and Dan Greene who started the last day but as far as I’m aware they didn’t play any championship last year.

“And it’s (coach) Kevin O’Sullivan’s second year with us and he’s had more time with the group.

“The reality is we have one more huge task in front of us. Knocknagree have been blowing teams aside, I think the nearest teams have got to them is five points. They won their semi-final by 11 points.”

Times are good in the south-east. Carrigaline have also qualified for the Carrigdhoun JAFC final. And of course, there’s the Cork Premier IHC decider to come.

“There are injuries and it is not just the dual players. We played Bishopstown without Brian O’Driscoll. In the Kanturk game, my brother (Brian) went off with an injury, hopefully he will be right. Kevin Kavanagh pretty much is out (in surgical boot).

“We all fed off the dual momentum. I was up on the bank roaring and shouting the hurlers and seeing them come through those tight games, automatically it lifts you, it makes the bond even stronger. Of course there are pros and cons, but you can’t beat that camaraderie.

“Darragh King, a dual player, hoping he might be back for both finals. We faced adversity during the year, only for Kevin O’Reilly Kanturk would have beaten us the last day. He hadn’t played since the second group game.

“We’ve definitely built a panel, lads who weren’t getting any minutes last year are playing a big role this year. Against Kanturk, we had three lads who played their first minutes of senior championship this year - Billy Pope, Ryan Delaney and Nathan O’Keeffe.”

The transfer of Brian O’Driscoll is a boost, a decision the Cork senior footballer didn’t take lightly.

“I built a house in Carrigaline with my partner Tara, we moved in last August 12 months, the commute up and down to west Cork was taking its toll,” O’Driscoll says.

“It was a big decision for me. My brothers are still playing with Tadhg MacCarthaigh. A lot of thought was put into it, but you have to make a decision at the end of the day.

“If I was going to move it was always going to be to the area I was living in, I’m looking to put a base down in the community and get involved in the GAA club.

“Things have gone well so far. Delighted to be here and with the group that we have, things are exciting at the moment.”

A sentiment echoed by coach Kevin O’Sullivan, originally from Cill na Martra (guided the mid Cork club to success in 2018) and living near Youghal, in the parish of Killeagh.

“We met in December last year and our ambition was to get back playing Premier senior football,” he says. “We started training on January 4. The difference this year is we built a good panel.

“We won the Division 1 league, beating Nemo Rangers in the final, that was a brilliant achievement for us. You can win a final, but when you beat Nemo it means a bit more.

“We used a lot of the younger lads and I think it showed against Kanturk, we brought on eight subs. Kanturk brought on three. We trusted the lads that came in because we knew they had played at a higher level and they did the job for us.

“Éanna Desmond, who was flying against Nemo, absolutely brilliant, he broke his hand in the hurling league final. It was a case of somebody else coming in. He’s back now.

“I suppose against Mallow (relegation) we had a few injuries but we didn’t have the personnel to come in.

“It’s about winning and confidence. If you start winning league games, the players start believing it.

“The end game is to win the final. We feel we’re a good team and have a very good chance, 50/50 I’d say. Knocknagree have a very good coach in John Fintan Daly, he has a big CV.”