Aghabullogue will need to be '100 times better' to get close to An Ghaeltacht

Ray Keane wasn’t wading too deep into provincial GAA politics as he identified the scale of the challenge facing Aghabullogue in their Munster IFC final.

The Caherciveen native raised the perennial issue of Cork’s third-tier winners taking on the second-tier Kerry representatives.

The Kingdom’s quota of senior clubs has been capped at eight in recent times, although it increased to nine this year. Cork, meanwhile, has 24 senior clubs divided between the Premier Senior and Senior A grades.

The past 18 years have seen Kerry clubs capture Munster intermediate honours on 16 occasions, with only Clyda Rovers (2013) and Cill na Martra (2023) loosening their grip on the Risteárd Ó Cuimín Cup.

Aghabullogue’s upcoming opponents, An Ghaeltacht, raised the trophy in 2017 on their last foray into provincial competition.

Keane also noted that the Gallaras-based club demonstrated their stature by beating senior county champions Dingle a fortnight ago in a West Kerry Senior Football Championship semi-final; albeit Dingle were without their inter-county contingent.

Keane said: “The reality is, and it’s probably well broadcast at this stage, that ultimately we're the 24th or 25th best team in Cork versus the 9th or 10th best team in Kerry, who actually played Dingle, who won the County Championship a few weeks ago, and beat them.

“There's very little between a lot of the teams in Kerry. But we'll give it a crack and we'll see where it'll take us. This time of the year, anything could happen, so we'll just go at it.” 

When asked about the fairness of the situation, Keane replied: “There's one thing I'll never be, and I won't even go into it because I'll never be a politician. I just couldn't be, so I'm not even going to answer that.

The reality is we're just thrilled to be where we are. That's for other people in higher positions to be dealing with and sorting out at some stage.

“It won't be an excuse. We'll try and represent the county the best we can and, more importantly, represent Aghabullogue and the parish and give the people in the area more to be proud of and another day out, wherever it is.

“These fellas owe absolutely nothing to anyone, only themselves, simple as that. They keep showing up.

“When we came to this job 19 months ago, if you'd have said to any of the lads inside in the dressing room or the people involved that you'd be a senior club in 19 or 20 months, let alone heading for a Munster Club final against arguably one of the best teams in the country, you'd think we're off our head.

“But we're there. We've two weeks to prepare, get the bodies fresh if we can, and I'm just delighted for the players and the people in the parish.

TOUGH TIMES

“There's people that brought football into that parish and fought for it and kept going when times would have been tough. People don't realise what it means to those people who are not involved at all now.” 

Some of their multitalented crop lined out for Coachford AFC on Saturday afternoon in a 4-1 victory over Castleview. Adam Murphy scored two goals for the Cork AUL Premier Division leaders, both of which were created by Luke Casey. Ireland amateur international Casey netted a goal of his own, while Matthew Bradley chipped in with two assists.

Less than 24 hours later, Bradley kicked 0-9 for Aghabullogue, including five from play into a strong wind. Casey and Murphy also played prominent roles in their 0-14 to 0-10 Munster semi-final victory over Askeaton-Ballysteen-Kilcornan.

Aghabullogue weren’t quite as efficient in converting their goal chances, leaving seven behind them at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“That's a first-world problem,” said Keane. “We'll always have workings-on, because I've yet to meet anyone that's perfect in life. 

There's no doubt about it, we'll have to be 100 times better to even be close enough to An Ghaeltacht, but let’s see where it takes us.” 

John Buckley’s hard-earned seventh clean sheet in eight games proved vital to their success against an ABK fightback, which brought the game level entering the final 10 minutes.

“John would be the first to tell you, from 15 back, we work our arses off, to put it mildly,” said Keane.

“If something goes in at the back, it's the responsibility of the lads up front. In the same way, with us missing a goal chance, we are a tight unit.

“But we'll have to be. I'd say we'll have to get about 20 more lads to go in there against An Ghaeltacht to try and cut them down.”