Premier IFC : Cill na Martra's Seán Ó Fóirréidh looking to complete unique double

These are busy times for Seán Ó Fóirréidh.

A secondary school teacher in Buttevant, he ostensibly lives in Limerick, having attended university there, but a busy schedule means he is spending a lot of time at home in Cill na Martra at the moment.

As well as being a key part of the club’s march to Sunday’s Bon Secours Hospital Cork Premier IFC final against Bantry Blues in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (1pm), he has hurling commitments too.

Last Sunday, listed as Seán Furey, he was at midfield as Aghabullogue beat Midleton to claim Co-op SuperStores IAHC final glory. Most of the rest of the Coachford side have their sights on Sunday week’s IAFC decider against Mitchelstown – while Ó Fóirréidh has a quicker turnaround, he’s not complaining.

“My uncle Tomás Murphy would have played for them 20 or 30 years ago,” he says.

“Myself, my two brothers, some cousins – Tadhg Ó Corcra and Dan Ó Duinnín would have played all the ways up, too.

“It’s busy. You’re training every second night and trying to balance both but it’s a great complaint to have. It’d be worse if you were finished!”

It was Aghabullogue that Cill na Martra beat in the 2018 IFC final and since then they have contended well at the Premier IFC grade. In each of the three seasons since the introduction of the new championship format, they were beaten semi-finalists but that glass ceiling was finally broken with victory over Castletownbere.

Having got to the last four so often, was there any fear they might take their eye off the ball earlier in the campaign?

“No, I don’t think so,” Ó Fóirréidh says, “the approach was to take every game as it was.

“We had Aghada in the first round – we got over them in the quarter-final last year and we knew going in that it was going to be close game.

“We won by a couple of points and we had Kilshannig next, again with the expectation of a tight match. We ended up drawing that – we felt in a way we left it behind us as we had plenty of opportunities to win it.

“We beat Na Piarsaigh in the last match and then we were building towards a quarter-final against Iveleary, a big local derby under lights inside in Macroom. They’re the games you look forward to but we had a poor first half and went in at half-time and realised we’d 30 minutes to save our season.

“Thankfully, in the second half, we were a different team.”

The core of the Cill na Martra side reached the U21AFC final in 2017 and, while they lost narrowly, it was an experience that they channelled well in the following year’s intermediate victory. Since then, it has been a case of learning and improving, bit by bit.

“We’ve had a lot of hard games over the last few years and, every year, we’re trying to learn something different,” he says.

“We’ve gained a lot of experience as there have been a lot of the same players playing in all of those games. We’re still a young team but we’re getting older and more experienced and we’re dealing with situations better.”

Sunday will of course represent a bigger test again, against a Bantry side that lost last year’s Premier IFC final to Kanturk and have done well to make it back to this stage.

In manager John Evans, Cill na Martra have somebody who will ensure that they will give themselves the best chance of victory. Ó Fóirréidh has been very impressed by the former Roscommon, Tipperary and Wicklow manager.

“I think the big thing with John Evans is that he has got us playing more as a team,” he says.

“Everyone feels a lot closer together and with every game we’re developing a stronger bond.

“We have a structure in place and we’re sticking to that structure as best we can. Everybody knows what they’re jobs is and another big thing this year is that we have a very strong squad.

“There are options to come from the bench, something we didn’t have before, and in every game there has been a different starting lineup, which I presume will be the same for the final.”