Aidan O'Mahony: I owe Macroom a debt for support they gave me after family tragedy

After they secured their Premier Intermediate Football Championship survival, Macroom manager Aidan O’Mahony was pleased by the fighting spirit shown by his team when it mattered most.

Indeed Macroom can rest over the winter months that bit easier, after securing a 1-13 to 1-11 victory over Ilen Rovers in the relegation playoff played in Dunmanway.

Speaking to The Echo, an emotional O’Mahony explained how this Macroom team and club helped him through some difficult days during the past 12 months.

“When I met the lads at the start of the year, we had our first team-building day on February 3 and my brother died the following day. These lads came up to my house in a bus, this group Macroom. It is something I will never forget and all my family.

I owe them an awful lot of debt because they have got me through a lot of tough times the last couple of months. I probably don’t tell them enough. 

"But they are fantastic and we have gelled very close. I am just delighted they got over the line for themselves."

O’Mahony felt his Macroom players did their club proud with their attitude and application in ensuring survival.

“We knew today was going to be a titanic battle. I know this is the lads second year being in relegation. But I just said to them in the group there it is a great sign of a team, sometimes if you come back a second time you mightn’t have the gumption for it.

“But they were fantastic today, each and every one of them. They fought there till the very end. They don’t do things easy, but they are a fabulous group. As I said, each and every one of them are a credit to their club.

Credit to the players. It is very easy from the side-line we don’t do much, it is the lads inside the white lines that do all of the work.

“It was about staying up today for young lads coming through and lads watching the game here. We will see what the winter brings, but today was all about Macroom staying up.

“We worked hard through the league and they trained very hard in fairness to them. They we very unlucky in games, there was a point or two points between league games and championship games, a kick of a ball and you need a bit of luck in games as well. 

"There was no way they were going to let themselves go down to Intermediate A though.

“But as I said Ilen Rovers you have to give credit to them they never gave up. We went five or six points up there and they came back at us.

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“In fairness to our lads there, you could just see them and they kept going and going. When the final whistle went, there was a bit of relief there. But that is a relegation battle, it is never going to be one-sided.

"The likes of Sean Kiely and Fintan Goold coming home from America the whole time, that just says about those two players. What they have done for that club down through the years, it would be very easy for them to walk away."