IAFC: Ilen Rovers looking upwards again after three relegations in recent years

While the majority of the attention will be on the higher grades for the final group games in the McCarthy Insurance Group Football Championship this weekend, the Intermediate A grade is turning out to be a fascinating one.

We shouldn’t be surprised though given how cut-throat it is now from Premier Senior all the way down to Premier Junior.

Ilen Rovers are a team going about their business in a quiet but effective manner. The proud West Cork club have tumbled down the grades. They were in the top-tier as recently as 2021, but demotion that year was the start of the slide.

They then suffered back-to-back relegations in 2023 and ’24, which has now seen them in the fourth tier of the Cork football championship pyramid.

We have seen other teams drop down further, but Ilen Rovers have gone back to basics and it has worked so far.

The management team are more or less homegrown, consisting of Florence O’Driscoll (manager), Brendan Duggan, Seán Collins, Seán Murphy and Tommy Ryan.

A solid McCarthy Insurance Group Division 5 league campaign set the tone, as the team in white and green ended up mid-table with 11 points from nine games.

At the end of the day, Ilen Rovers know that they will be judged on how they fare in the championship. Wins in the real stuff have been hard to come by prior to this season.

Coming into the McCarthy Insurance Group IAFC campaign back in July, they hadn’t tasted a championship victory since 2022.

Ilen Rovers’ championship group this year consists of last season’s Premier JFC winners Kilmurry, St Vincent’s and last year’s beaten finalists Boherbue.

Certainly not an easy one to get through, but going into the final round of group matches this Saturday, Ilen Rovers are in control of their own destiny.

They are tied with Kilmurry at the top on three points with Boherbue a point behind. St Vincent’s are out of the running for a qualification spot.

Ilen Rovers have reverted to type, back to the old days when they were very competitive at the top table of Cork football 20 odd years ago. They reached the then SFC final in 2007. Full of heart, desire, craft and most importantly quality.

All those characteristics were on show in the first group game against Boherbue back in July, on a day when Adrian O’Driscoll kicked 1-5 to help his team to a 1-12 to 0-12 triumph over their fancied opposition.

The long wait for a championship win had come to an end for Ilen Rovers. It was followed a month later by a gritty 1-14 apiece draw with Kilmurry.

Ahiohill is the venue on Saturday for Ilen’s clash with St Vincent’s at 4pm. A positive result is required to book a knockout spot.

Before a ball was kicked this year, the Baltimore-based outfit would have been down the pecking order in terms of winning the championship outright. They are happy enough in the long grass.

Jack Collins, Aaron O’Sullivan and Joseph Hickey have gone to another level in defence this year with Peadar O’Driscoll and Dermot Hegarty excelling in midfield.

Adrian O’Driscoll, Micheál Sheehy and the experienced Dan MacEoin can all contribute in terms of scoring.