Recent exceptions but relegated football sides have found it tough

Éire Óg will be hoping that good things come in threes as they gear up for the commencement of the McCarthy Insurance Group Cork SAFC this weekend.

The Ovens club were the first team to win the newly created second-tier championship in the 2020 season (the final against Mallow was played in the summer of 2021) but last year’s relegation from premier senior leaves them looking to bounce back.

In that regard, they will presumably cling to some recent history. Last year, Carrigaline shook the disappointment of their 2023 relegation by first of all winning Division 1 of the county football league and then harnessing that momentum and going all the way to championship glory by beating Knocknagree in the final.

The south-east side were following in the footsteps of Newcestown. In 2022, their stay at the top grade was brought to an end by defeat to Éire Óg in the relegation play-off but Newcestown have never been a club to wallow in disappointment, instead focusing on mounting a response.

They certainly did that in 2023, reaching the final of the SAFC at the first time of asking and then getting the better of Dohenys in the decider – an achievement made all the more impressive by the fact that the victory was half of a double along with their senior A hurling triumph over Blarney after a replay.

Those victories show those teams readjusting to a new grade this year after relegation in 2024 that an immediate bounce-back can be done; however, those of a less optimistic bent will point out that Newcestown and Carrigaline are the only two footballing examples of that feat since the championships were formatted for the 2020 season.

In senior A, premier intermediate and intermediate A, there are four examples each of relegated sides from 2021-24; the premier junior championship came into being in 2023 so we are left with a total of 13 relegated clubs to provide the data. Unfortunately for the teams who have fallen, the really good outcomes are in the minority.

Prior Newcestown, another West Cork club, Ilen Rovers, were the newly demoted side in the 2022 SAFC – they finished third in their group to ward off fears of an immediate double relegation but they succumbed in 2023 and then dropped straight through the PIFC last year.

Bishopstown were the first team relegated from the Premier SFC at the end of 2020 and they too found relocation difficult – it took a relegation play-off win over Bantry Blues to preserve SAFC status.

To Bantry’s credit, they made it all the way to the 2022 PIFC final after coming down, losing to Kanturk, and they reached the decider again in 2023 but were beaten by Cill na Martra.

However, the baysiders are firmly the exception in the third tier – like Ilen in 2024, St Nick’s endured a second straight relegation while Bandon in 2023 finished bottom of their group but did at least avoid having to play off to avoid the drop.

It’s a similar tale for the teams relegated from premier intermediate down to intermediate A. In 2021, Gabriel Rangers weren’t in danger of falling down to junior but equally they didn’t qualify from their group, while St Nick’s suffered in 2022 due to the restructuring of the grade: with the IAFC reducing from 16 teams to 12 as part of the creation of the Premier JFC, all four teams finishing fourth in their groups were sent down.

St Vincent’s in 2023 did at least qualify from their group but lost out to Adrigole at the quarter-final stage. Last year, the news wasn’t so good for Vincent’s as they had to contest the relegation play-off – they met and beat their northside neighbours, Na Piarsaigh, who had just come down from the third tier the year before.

The Fairhill outfit will begin their Premier JFC campaign this weekend, following in the footsteps of another black and amber club, Glenville, from last year – the Imokilly side managed a quarter-final appearance.

That meant that, out of 13 relegated sides, two had won their new grade at the first time of shot, one made the final, there were two quarter-finalists, three eliminated at the group stage, one relegation play-off winners and four relegated.