Goold-en tickets - Macroom's Fintan put in the miles with trans-Atlantic journeys

Macroom didn’t get a new jersey for 2023, but they did have a player travelling from New Jersey for their four Bon Secours Hospital Premier IFC matches.

Fintan Goold, part of the Cork side that won the All-Ireland SFC in 2010 – he helped Macroom to win the county IFC the same year – had been based at Lilly’s facility in Dunderrow but a move across the Atlantic might have signalled the end of his club career. Instead, became familiar with the Newark-Shannon timetables and did his bit to help the Muskerry side secure their status.

After defeats to Naomh Abán and Iveleary, a draw with eventual finalists Bantry Blues was not enough to avoid the relegation play-off but a win there against Na Piarsaigh ensured they will be premier intermediate again.

For the Princeton-based Goold – who moved out in January, with his wife Karen and their three daughters following in March – the trips home had not been planned, but things fell so as to make them viable.

“I knew the move was on the cards for me midway through last year,” he says.

“When we were beaten by Kanturk in our last group game in 2022, I was pretty certain walking out the door that day that it had been my last game for Macroom.

“I struggled an awful lot last year with two bulging discs in my back, I couldn’t get them right. It was hard to even get through training.

“Over the winter, I didn’t do a whole lot and let things settle down. I wasn’t doing a bit, just tipping away to keep fit – there’s a great gym in the university that’s open to the public.

“Of course, typical Irish fella, I brought two O’Neills balls over and I was kicking them around a bit and thinking that I wasn’t feeling too bad.

“Ultimately, how I decided was that I was going to be home for three weeks in August for my sister’s wedding and, the way the fixtures are made now, you know in January when you’re going to be playing.

“Conor Hurley, the Macroom manager, is a good friend of mine and I told him that I’d work away out here. If they wanted me for five minutes or no minutes, I was fine with that.

“I happened to be home for one weekend in May for my now-brother-in-law’s stag and I got in one league game on a Friday night.”

Availing of a 60-day sanction allowed Goold to line out for Cork New York in the local championship while he also did a bit of training with the New York county team.

“I felt at that stage that I could be good for 20 or 25 minutes, though I still probably wasn’t game-ready,” he says.

“I came back for the wedding but then I felt I had to see it out as we lost the first two games and then we were staring down the barrel of a gun.

“The two games I came home for were 48-hour spins; I didn’t know where I was. There was a late-night flight out of Newark, so I’d get that at 11.15pm and be into Shannon at 10.30am the following day.

“In fairness to my parents, they collected me and brought me down so I’d be in Macroom for lunchtime. I’d try to do that the day before the match, whenever it was, and then fly out first thing on the Monday morning and be in work around 1pm US time.

“It was hard going. After the Na Piarsaigh game, it hit me and body-clock was all over the shop, but I don’t regret it.”

Winning that game, helped, obviously, and he can be satisfied at having played his part.

“Obviously, it was a relief to avoid relegation,” he says.

“If we had been relegated, it would have felt terrible. Nobody is ever too good to be relegated but we certainly felt that there was more in us.

“It certainly wasn’t where we wanted to be the championship does have a great structure now.

“Our biggest thing is that we’ve lost the first match every year and it puts us under ferocious pressure. I think it makes a massive difference psychologically if you win that.

“The way that it’s set up now, it’s made it more conducive to play into your 30s. You know when you’re going to be playing and you don’t need to be at it hard from January once you stay in decent nick.”