Tomás Ó Buachalla: Ibane Gaels are only advancing Cork football

Ibane Gaels have no shortage of motivation going into this weekend's McCarthy Insurance Group County U21 A Football Championship decider.

The West Cork side lost their manager Donal Holland back in July due to illness and also as things stand, given their an amalgamation of two clubs, Argideen Rangers and Barryroe, they won’t be able to compete at U21 level next year.

It followed recommendations of the Cork County Board’s independent teams sub-committee in recent months.

Ibane Gaels take on Douglas in the final on Sunday in Macroom with throw-in at 2.30pm. For Ibane Gaels captain Tomás Ó Buachalla, he’s relishing the showdown in lots of ways.

“There’s definitely motivation from our point of view,” he says ahead of the big game.

“We feel that we have been hard done by with this new rule coming in. Ibane Gaels are a fantastic club that has benefited both Argideen Rangers and Barryroe.

“We have only 25 lads on the Ibane Gaels U21 football team. We don’t have a huge panel. We are playing some of the biggest clubs in Cork and we have reached a county final at A level for two small Junior clubs down here in West Cork.

“If we didn’t come together over 10 years ago, we wouldn’t be able to have this opportunity of playing Douglas in a county final. It’s brilliant exposure.

“We will be playing Junior for most of our lives and for us to be playing in this final, it’s great. We are only advancing Cork football."

Ibane Gaels will be underdogs going into Sunday’s final, a tag they have no problem with. They wouldn’t have been tipped to come through a difficult Carbery series, but they did so with flying colours.

They beat a strong Bantry Blues team in the final before getting over Mallow and Kinsale in the county series.

“Douglas are a formidable team, we are looking forward to it, but we are aware of the challenge,” Ó Buachalla says.

“We like being underdogs, it suits us. Ibane Gaels have always been underdogs. Even this year in the first round in Carbery against Clonakilty, we were worried as Clon had a very decent team and we ended up hammering them.

“We are very grateful to be in the county final and we want to do our best.” 

Ó Buachalla is the captain in his last year playing at U21 level. He knows how much it would mean if Ibane Gaels were able to land county glory.

“It would be savage for us if we were to win. We lost our manager Donal Holland during the summer. His sisters have gone to every single game we have played this year. We have drawn more of a crowd because of what happened.

“It has shone a light on Donal and who he really was. To do it for him, it would be special.”