Glanmire ladies football coach Conor Quinlan enjoying new role with the club

The recent success of Glanmire Senior B Ladies footballers in their Cork county final win over O’Donovan Rossa continues the progress of the club.

For coach Conor Quinlan the former Delanys stalwart getting involved with the club has been a wonderful journey.

“I joined Glanmire in 2022 after a meeting with Michael O’Sullivan and with the club looking to go in a different direction, I felt it was right for me,” said Conor.

The manager was Vincent Barry and after another few meetings Quinlan knew this was a good opportunity for him.

“Glanmire in my book was a sleeping giant and I knew the potential they had as they were on the back of losing three Intermediate finals on the belt and with my involvement with Cork, I was aware they had some decent players in their squad,” added Quinlan.

Quinlan resides in Glanmire with his wife Jackie daughter Katie and son Bobby but it didn’t take him long to help the club get their long awaited success.

“In my first year we won the county and then succeeded in winning Munster before completing the elusive treble with All-Ireland success with a comfortable win over Sean O’Heslin’s of Leitrim.” 

The 2024 season in their first season at Senior A level was interesting but Quinlan believes the work in progress continued.

“We were in a difficult group that included Mourneabbey but after winning our first two games we lost out by the minimum to St Val’s but it showed us where we were at as they were a seasoned Senior team.

“The last group game against Mourneabbey was tight but we came out on top and that gave us a semi- final against Aghada.” 

Losing out by the minimum was hard to take but Glanmire took the positives after a truly progressive season he reflected on the format in Ladies football.

“There are 10 teams and the top two qualify for the Senior A final with the third and fourth taking their place in the Senior B championship with the last team suffering relegation.” 

After a truly wonderful 2024 season that included success at U21 county level Glanmire felt they were ready to mix it with the big guns in this campaign.

“This season we were drawn against the eventual winners Eire Og , Mourneabbey, Kinsale and Bride Rovers.

“We started well with wins over Kinsale and Bride Rovers but our away game to Eire Og saw us missing a penalty late in the game before eventually coming out on the wrong side.” 

Failing to come out of the group saw Glanmire get a home semi final in the Senior B championship.

“To be honest it’s a decent competition and for us we are still learning about our players as we have a very good squad but getting to the final after defeating Clonakility was a huge plus for us.

“Winning the final against O’Donovan Rossa was another huge achievement as they are another good club with quality players.” 

There is major work been done at many levels in Glanmire and Quinlan’s thoughts on the general standard of Ladies football in Cork was interesting.

“Ladies football at the top tier is a results based business so for Cork getting out of division two would have been a priority but they failed to build on that in the All-Ireland series.

“In my book I don’t think the quality and progress of the underage standard in Cork is being utilized by the Senior team as we have some serious talent ready to make the breakthrough.

“My philosophy has always been to trust players and that’s what should be done in Cork because if players do not a break, they will leave the sport.” 

The Camogie and Ladies football associations are sometimes known to clash, and Quinlan had some interesting thoughts on this problem.

“The common denominator here is the players and their welfare as we have dual players in our club that we tend to mind as we are conscious of their extra sessions.

“Unless both organisations come together to thrash out these issues nothing is going to change as burnout will cause players to step away from both sports.” 

Outside of his love for GAA Conor loves basketball and is a regular at both the Neptune stadium and the Mardyke arena.

“I love basketball and I have taken a few skills from it to the football field and to me it is great to see the number of kids and parents involved because at the end of the day that’s what makes any sport so special.”