Charleville boss Dominic Foley delivers coaching wake-up call to Cork GAA
Charleville manager Dominic Foley has called on the Cork County Board to “wake up” and make sure they retain their top coaching talent.
While lauding their hurling coach James Kennedy as “second to none”, Foley couldn’t understand how Cork aren’t among those seeking to recruit him.
Having survived three relegation play-offs in the previous four years, Charleville secured their progression to the knockout stages with a game to spare for the second consecutive year under Foley and Kennedy.
“A little agenda for me, but the County Board needs to wake up and see what's going on in our club. It hasn't happened by accident,” said Foley.
“We've got a fella, James Kennedy, who is second to none. He is top class.
“There are teams and counties coming after him. Why aren't we looking to get him involved with our minors or under-20s or even our senior team? He's that good.
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“Please start looking at him before someone else takes him.” The six-time Ireland international, who played Premier League football with Watford, credited Kennedy with orchestrating their match-winning bench impact against Douglas.
“We have a guy with us, James Kennedy, our hurling coach, and when I say this, I've been lucky enough to be in a lot of professional dressing rooms in my years; this guy is professional level,” said Foley.
“We know from top to bottom what Douglas are going to do, what they're not going to do, and every player knows, when they come in, what job they have to do.
“So, a big shout out to him. And to the boys above in the County Board, come and have a look at him.” With their game level on 50 minutes, Charleville’s substitutes made the difference, scoring the final four points from play and winning two further pointed frees.
They could even find themselves in the shake-up for a semi-final bye, although Newtownshandrum will have plenty to fight for in their local derby at Milford on September 6th.
Douglas have now gone six games without a championship win since beating Bishopstown in August 2024.
With Sarsfields to come, they enter the final round concerned by the prospect of a relegation play-off. Equally, if they can spring a shock, they could advance instead of the reigning champions.
They must prepare for the prospect of going into that task without corner-back Donnacha Murphy, who received a straight red card for a wild swing in the 59th minute.
“Douglas gave us some game,” said Foley. “I'm nearly more happy with this one than the Sars victory, because we weren't at our best, but we stuck at it and we dug it out.” The city side’s frenetic work rate restricted Charleville to one point in the opening 14 minutes while raising six of their own.
With their opponents dropping off the puck-out, goalkeeper Donal Maher was happy to hold the sliotar on his hurley or tap it off the ground to bait the forwards to press up.
Backed by a moderate wind, their early lead was built on long-range shooting. Shane Kingston nailed three frees and Cillian O’Donovan two from play from inside their own half.
Their pressure also showed by forcing two technical frees for fouling the sliotar. Kingston punished both.
Playing through a knock, Darragh Fitzgibbon’s huge settler sparked Charleville’s comeback. With Conor Buckley, Gareth Gleeson, Tim Hawe, and Zack Biggane finding their range, they cut the half-time deficit to one; 0-9 to 0-8.
On the resumption, Biggane, Seán Bresnan, and David Forde completed the set of six forwards registering from play for their first lead. By comparison, Andy O’Connell was the only Douglas forward to raise a flag from play at this juncture.
Forde could’ve had a goal too but for a fantastic block by Dan Harte.
Douglas would pull level three more times through Ronan Dooley, Kingston, and Eoin O’Flynn to leave it 0-13 apiece.
Charleville would end with 18 wides to Douglas’s 11, but their bench would make the difference with some accurate shooting.
Just as Douglas started, the men in red finished by firing six of the last seven points. Robert Carroll slotted two and Gavin Kelleher had another. Both won frees for Fitzgibbon to bring his tally to 0-7. The latter foul on Kelleher resulted in Murphy’s red.
Jake Madigan was the next sub to score, while the other man in, Darren Casey, chipped in with two assists in that final stretch.
D Fitzgibbon (0-7, 5 frees); S Bresnan, Z Biggane, R Carroll (0-2 each); D Forde, G Gleeson, T Hawe, C Buckley, G Kelleher, J Madigan (0-1 each).
S Kingston (0-8, 7 frees); Cillian O’Donovan (0-2); J O’Brien, R Dooley, E O’Flynn (0-1 each).
C Reynolds; D Butler, J Meade, F Cagney; J Buckley, A Dennehy, J O’Callaghan; C O’Carroll, S Bresnan; Z Biggane, D Forde, D Fitzgibbon; G Gleeson, T Hawe, C Buckley.
R Carroll for Gleeson (48), D Casey for Biggane (53), G Kelleher for Hawe (55), J Madigan for Bresnan (58).
D Maher; D Murphy, D Harte, L Kelleher; C Kingston, M Howell, Cillian O’Donovan; A Cadogan, J O’Brien; S Kingston, S O’Leary, A O’Connell; C Lucas, J Harte, R Dooley.
M O’Brien for O’Connell (42), E O’Flynn for J O’Brien (50), Conor O’Donovan for Lucas (55).
Red card: D Murphy (59).
C McAllister (Aghada).
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