Division 1 FL: Harry O'Reilly hails the character and grit from his side as Éire Óg avoid relegation 

Éire Óg manager Harry O’Reilly was a relieved man after his side avoided the drop from Division 1 of the McCarthy Insurance Group Football League last Sunday.

The team in red and yellow required a positive result in the last game at home to Cill na Martra to avoid demotion. It was a typical Muskerry derby and it was no huge surprise that the game ended in a draw, 0-14 to 1-11. It was enough to keep Éire Óg up.

In a topsy-turvy contest, the home side trailed by four points after 53 minutes and looking like they were heading down. They stood up.

“A hard-earned draw, Cill na Martra are a good side,” O’Reilly says, who is back in charge this year for a third stint.

“It was a tough game. We went four points up, they turned it around and went four points up, but we clawed it back and got our noses in front and they got the leveller late on, so the draw was probably a fair result.

“It looked gone from us to be fair, down four points with seven minutes to go or something like that, but the guys showed character and grit. We really dug deep at the end there. We were missing a lot of players today, so hopefully they will come back now from holidays and injury in the next couple of weeks.

“It’s great for the club to remain in Division 1. I suppose it's more for confidence than anything else. We kind of really didn't mind if we had to play in Division 2, like that grade is an excellent standard. A lot of senior teams that have won championships in recent years.

“You see in hurling in the Division 2 league, teams like Newtownshandrum and Midleton are playing in Division 2, so there wasn't a big issue if we went down, but I suppose it's confidence for the lads that they have stayed up and if you have relegation tagged to your name before you start the championship, it’s not great.” 

The pressure was on Éire Óg coming into their last game especially when they got wind two days beforehand that Douglas had conceded to Carrigaline. It meant the latter had drawn level on points with Éire Óg meaning O'Reilly's charges had to win or draw to survive.

“You would be disappointed when there is a walkover especially be disappointed with a big club like Douglas who couldn’t field. They have plenty of players and it’s such a pity that they couldn’t get a team together. No one likes to see walkovers especially in Division 1. It's not a good look.

“Anyway, we have stayed up, that’s the main thing. It has been a challenging league campaign because we have a lot of dual players, so they're playing 18 weeks in a row. It's a really, really hard schedule on the lads.

“We encourage them to take the holidays and go away. So because of that, we've been missing a lot of players at different stages of the league. We were down eight starters today.

“The last couple of games we were probably missing nine or ten starters. At least we had Darragh Clifford, Mark Griffin and Daire McCarthy back today. They gave us a bit of a platform. That was great. We have a strong panel when everyone is fit.”

After being relegated from the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC last year, Éire Óg will look to have a positive campaign down at the Senior A grade. It will be difficult though, especially with Kanturk, Newmarket and Kilshannig in their group.

“Training has been going very well this year. The character of the lads, as I said, is excellent. We need everyone back on the pitch from the 1st of July and start moving on from there.

“The championship won’t be long coming around, but we will be ready for it. Very much looking forward to it.”