PIFC final preview: David Daly keen to help Bantry back to senior ranks

THEORETICALLY, the strongest two teams in any grade below Premier Senior should be the beaten finalists of the previous year and the side just relegated from the tier above.

Of course, given the even spread of quality in the various championships, it rarely works like that but Sunday’s Bons Secours Hospital Cork Premier IFC final between Kanturk and Bantry Blues in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (4pm) is a rare example of the phenomenon.

Having come down from senior A last year, Bantry have responded in the best possible fashion, topping their group and earning an automatic semi-final spot, where they saw off Iveleary three weeks ago.

Bantry’s David Daly has been playing for the club’s first team for nearly a decade, with a mix of ups and downs in that period.

“The first year I played, 2014, we got to a semi-final against Na Piarsaigh, we lost to them over in Macroom,” he says.

“There is frustration when you can’t go all the way. The re-grading has been good – we found in senior A that we were in every game but that we were just coming out on the wrong side of matches.

“Very quickly you find yourself in the relegation section then and we were in that both years, which is tough.

“There’s always expectation – we want to do well and we want to represent Bantry well. You’re always trying your best.”

In 2020, the first year of the restructured championships, Bantry contested the relegation play-off against St Nicholas but, while they triumphed by 3-15 to 0-2, they couldn’t build on it the following year.

“It is good to get out on the right side of it, but last year was tough,” Daly says.

“We lost to Bishopstown over in Newcestown and it’s a disappointing end to the year. You’re down a grade lower and you’re not sure what’s going to happen the following season.

These grades are very competitive and there’s nothing between a lot of the teams across the three grades.

“That’s all you can do, put your best foot forward and go for it.”

The key thing for Bantry, Daly feels, was that it wasn’t tough for everybody to pick themselves up and face into the Premier Intermediate grade.

“I don’t think it was,” he says. “We still have a relatively young team – I’m one of the older fellas – and there’s good youth coming up through the U19s and the U17s.

“There are a lot of good young players coming on stream and when you can see that, you’re saying that the club is going places and you’re hoping that you can come out on the right side of these matches and build momentum.

“That’s been the case this year – we won a few games and got going and now we’re in a final and we’re hoping that we can put our best foot forward there.”

ON A ROLL

Drawn with Aghada, neighbours Castletownbere and Na Piarsaigh, Bantry slowly got on a roll.

“Aghada the first day, things weren’t going our way but we managed to get on top and pull out a good win,” says Daly, who works with Laya Healthcare.

“That just got us on the road going and then we played Castletown down in Adrigole, right in the height of the summer heatwave.

“It was roasting that day but we came out on the right side of that too and that set us up then for Na Piarsaigh in the final game. We had our momentum going and we were feeling good about ourselves, we got over the line that day and then we were through to a semi-final and obviously happy to get over Iveleary as well.”

Opposing the West Cork side will be Kanturk, beaten by Knocknagree in the 2020 final (played in the summer of last year) and then falling to Newmarket in the 2021 decider. Nobody in the Bantry camp will be under-estimating their Duhallow opponents.

“Definitely not,” Daly says, “they’re a very strong team.

To have gone so close two years in a row, we’re definitely under no illusions that it’ll be very hard the next day to beat them.

“They have great players all over the pitch but we’re just hoping that we can peak on the right day, put in a great performance for ourselves and everyone down in Bantry and hopefully the result will go our way on the day.”