Uíbh Laoire keen to make most of 'unbelievable crop' of footballers

In the end, Uíbh Laoire had a comfortable win over Aghada in the semi-final of the McCarthy Insurance Group PIFC in Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday. 

In a fortnight they will take on Aghabullogue in the decider as they seek to make the step up to senior football. Barry Oldham tried to make sense of the achievement afterwards. The club is on the crest of a wave, and he knows that they must make the most of it.

“Massive. It’s fantastic for the club. I know we’ve won the county junior, won the Lower Intermediate County, but we’re not used to that around Uíbh Laoire. 

"This crop of players has been unbelievable for the club, great servants. What they do week in, week out in training, they’re just an unbelievable bunch of players. For youngsters at home looking at them at training and that kind of stuff, they’re looking up to them, which is great for a club. It’s great, it gives a lift to the locality. 

"We’re only a small club, a population of 400 or 500 people and we’re in a Premier Intermediate final, striving to be senior, and that’s unbelievable.

“Even for us coming in here today, some of the lads that are in the backroom team; they never walked on Páirc Uí Rinn before. The next day we’re going to be walking on Pairc Uí Chaoimh, we’re not use to that! It’s fantastic for the players to be going through that. Someone else told me that some of the players will be playing in their seventh county final, including hurling as well, which is unbelievable for a club of our size.

EMBRACE THE CHALLENGE

“We need to embrace it and enjoy these times because the wheel is always turning. Look at other clubs. They went up senior; they’re coming back down towards junior level again. It happens. 

You come across a good crop of players, you get good results, and it takes you to the top. And then you have to keep working on it. 

"The last two or three years when we won the Lower Intermediate Final, we knew that we had to get up to a different level to be in this final in two weeks.” 

Uíbh Laoire have made a quantum leap through the grades over the past five seasons. Back-to-back county titles saw them go from Junior A to Premier Intermediate and while they settled into the higher grade of football well, they had come up just short in their first three seasons at this level. 

They lost two semi-finals in 2022 and 2024, while in 2023 they bowed out in the quarter-finals. As for what the difference has been that season, Oldham has no doubt that the continued input of their coach has played a major role.

I put a lot of that towards Niall Allen, our coach. 

"This is his third year. I think we’ve played 14 competitive games this year, and we’ve won 13 of them, lost to Mallow. He said a lot of things to us three years ago. 

"For example, we never did strength and conditioning in our club. We started it three years ago. The lads love it now, they’re big into it, and he brought the professional side of things to Uíbh Laoire. We’re delighted to have him, he’s an absolute gentleman, and hopefully, in two weeks, we’ll reap the rewards.”