Jack Kelleher wins final Muskerry GAA award of 2023

THE last EPH Controls Muskerry GAA award of 2023 went to Jack Kelleher.

The Canovee sharpshooter was an integral figure in the black and amber winning the Mid-Cork JAFC title for the first time since 2007 with Kelleher scoring 1-3 (0-2 f) in a 1-15 to 2-6 success over Inniscarra in the final. It would get better for the Carrigadrohid based side and for Kelleher. Canovee breezed to county glory as they beat Lisgoold in the quarter-final, 5-13 to 0-6, Castlemagner in the last four, 4-11 to 1-6, and finally Mayfield had no answer in the final as it finished up 4-14 to 1-11.

Kelleher hit 0-19 (0-7 f) in the three games in the county championship as Canovee finally escaped from the junior A ranks. It was a memorable season for the team as they also won the Muskerry Division 1 football league title earlier in the season. Canovee won every single game they played last year.

The final award function of 2023 before the Muskerry Gala Awards on Saturday, January 20 in the Oriel House Hotel in Ballincollig took place in the Auld Triangle in Macroom recently.

“We couldn’t have dreamt of a better season to be honest,” Kelleher says.

“Everything just came together really. We were very comprehensive in a lot of the games, we started the majority of the matches on the front foot which we targeted before a ball was kicked at the start of the campaign. The one game we didn’t start well was against Inniscarra in the Mid-Cork final, they got two goals in the first ten minutes and that was the ultimate test for us but we recovered and won by six points in the end.

“Getting out of Mid-Cork was a monkey off our back. We then went out into the county and we came up against teams that we wouldn’t have been too familiar with, and maybe that helped us. We just went out there and expressed ourselves and didn’t worry about the opposition. I would say we played our best football of the season in the three games in the county championship.” 

When Canovee got relegated from the intermediate ranks in 2013, they were tipped to bounce back within a few years, but they were unlucky they came up against some very good teams in Muskerry with the likes of Iveleary and Kilmurry slogging it out for the title for a good number of seasons until both eventually went up. Canovee were the outright favourites in 2023 not just for the Mid-Cork title but also for the county, but why did everything click for the team in black and amber last year?

“I would say we matured and learnt a lot from 2022,” Kelleher said.

“We are still a very young team and it was always going to take time for us to gel, but we lost to Kilmurry in the Muskerry semi-final by three points and they went onto win the county so we knew we weren’t far away. We watched back that game and we saw where the match was lost. The Muskerry JAFC is very competitive so we weren’t taking anything for granted in 2023 but we just backed ourselves. Getting over Aghinagh in the Mid-Cork semi-final was a big moment for us. We lost a lot of semi-finals since we came down from intermediate in 2013 so just to get over that was huge. There was a lot of attention on that particular game especially given the closeness of the two clubs.

“Donagh Wiseman who played for Castletownbere came in as coach at the start of the 2023 season and he made a big difference and raised the standards to another level. There was also a huge drive from us as players. We are a very tight knit group and we want to do the very best for the club.” 

Despite being in a higher grade in 2024, Canovee will be one of the fancied sides in the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier JFC. Canovee's group is a mouthwatering one. St James’, Cobh and Kilmurry, the club in the same parish as Canovee, make up the group.

“Our goal is to win a second county title on the bounce. There will be a step up in standard but we are more than capable of stepping up to it and with the belief we have there is no reason why we shouldn’t believe we can win the county.” Kelleher concluded.