Donoughmore coach praises character and grit of his players following stunning Muskerry success 

The celebrations once the full-time whistle sounded had to be seen to be believed as Donoughmore tasted the sweet, sweet success of Muskerry glory.

The team in black and white defeated Aghinagh in the Ross Oil Mid-Cork JAFC final replay on Saturday afternoon in Macroom.

Donoughmore trailed by seven points late on before 2-2 without reply sealed a 2-15 to 2-14 victory. Gavin O'Sullivan's 45 proved to be the winning score.

Donoughmore coach Danny Buckley was a cool and calm figure post-match when everyone around him were jumping for joy.

“Yeah, look, it’s a little bit surreal at the moment,” the Aghabullogue clubman said.

“We honestly thought we were dead and buried. We were seven points down. We just threw caution to the wind and made a couple of tweaks. 

“We got our hands on the ball and a bit of luck, someone up above was looking down on us.

“I thought the resilience that our lads showed was unbelievable. When we started in January, I always believed it was important to have a good culture within the group that you never give up.

There’s tremendous character and tremendous grit in these lads. There’s great work going on at underage.

“The management of this team last year brought it to a good level as well. It was straightforward enough just to step in and take on the work this year. Credit has to go to the people who were involved last year, Mossie Barrett and his crew.” 

Buckley coached Aghinagh to their maiden Mid-Cork trophy in 2021. He has repeated the trick with Donoughmore in terms of claiming silverware. The club’s first title since 2011.

“14 years is just too long to wait for a club like Donoughmore, it’s over now,” he says.

“By God, we’ll take it. I must give credit to Aghinagh. It was a bit strange today and last week. Look, I left the house both days and my wife said, how do you feel about this? And the honest truth is, I said, look, I don’t know how I feel about it, but look, I have a job to do.

“I have nothing but respect for Aghinagh. They are a fantastic club and they will be back.

This means so much to the people of Donoughmore.” 

The team in black and white will now face Nemo Rangers' third team in the county semi-final the weekend after next. Donoughmore will savour this success first.

“We’ll enjoy this for a few days. We might go back training maybe Thursday night and do a small bit, and we’ll take it from there.

BOOST

“This will give them a fierce boost now. I think for the young fellas there, what I’ve seen at times is their footballing ability can’t be questioned. It’s just that little bit of cuteness of game management at times.

“That’s all that needs to be worked on. We had around 10 U21 players on the field at the end today. A lot of them have won minor counties over the last couple of years.

“They have no fear, so we will go into the county with confidence.”