JBFC: Goleen hoping it will be fourth time lucky

GOLEEN are back in familiar surroundings this weekend as they take on Douglas in the Bon Secours Hospital County JBFC final tomorrow in Páirc Uí Rinn at 4pm.

The West Cork side will hope it’s fourth time lucky after losing three county finals at this level in recent years.

Goleen manager Shane O’Neill, who hails from Bantry, is very much looking forward to the big day with the team in black and gold expected to be backed by a large crowd.

“We can’t wait for this one now to be honest, the parish is buzzing,” says O’Neill.

“Goleen is rural Ireland at its best I suppose, next stop is America really, and there is a great sense of community, they love their football. Most of the players are based in Cork City but there are a fair share of players and management that travel up to Cloughduv from Goleen for training, it’s a huge commitment by them. It doesn’t matter if they are injured or not, they show up, we are getting huge numbers all year at training, for such a small club it’s fantastic.

“It would be incredible for a club like Goleen to win a county championship, but look finals are finals, they take a life of their own. It’s well documented now that Goleen have lost three county finals over the last few years but funnily enough we aren’t talking about it, the majority of the players that played in those games are still around, and maybe deep down it will be motivation for them but a lot of young lads have joined the panel over the last two seasons and have brought a new energy to the squad.” 

Goleen will be applying their trade in the Carbery junior A grade in 2024 regardless of what happens tomorrow courtesy of their 4-4 to 1-11 win over St Oliver Plunkett’s in the divisional decider five weeks ago, they haven’t looked back since.

“It has been a long but successful year so far, the lads have been training hard since January. Beating St Oliver Plunkett’s in the Carbery final at the end of October was a huge one for us. The scoreline would indicate an U12 scoreline but look there is an old saying that goals win games and thankfully we did enough to win the match. We were actually down five points with about eight minutes remaining, but we showed incredible character. The celebrations after the match was unreal. It gave the players a huge boost heading into the county championship.

“We got over Dungourney by four points in the county quarter-final. It was a tricky game because when the draw came out we didn’t know anything about them, we never played them so we had to do a lot of research on them. Then it was onto the Garnish game in the semi-final, we played them in a challenge a couple of months previous so we knew what they were about. We won by eight points in the end, we played some great football at times.” 

And now it comes down to the decider where Goleen’s opposition will be Douglas’ third team. O’Neill is expecting a huge challenge from the city outfit.

“Douglas are Douglas, they have a great name in both football and hurling,” says the Goleen boss.

“If we turn up and play to our best I would be hoping we will be in with a great chance but we are under no illusions about the size of the task facing us. Douglas were very good last Saturday in their three-point semi-final win over Ballinora. We will give it a lash.”