Junior B glory shows strength in depth of Carrigaline football
Carrigaline defend in numbers as Ballyphehane seek an equalising goal in the final seconds. Picture: Larry Cummins
The Carrigaline football club is clearly in a strong place. They’ve now etched their name onto the Jim Cronin Cup, the silverware awarded to the Cork Junior B Football Championship winners.
It may be a lower grade, but try to tell that to any of their 28-strong panel or to their management team. Carrigaline also contested the Carrigdhoun Junior A Football final just over a month ago, only to lose by a single point to Ballygarvan.
This was their third team in action against Ballyphehane’s first team in Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday, and they emerged victorious after registering a 1-15 to 1-12 scoreline.
The teams were tied with seven minutes of regulation remaining, but as he had been doing all day, David Drake helped regain their grip on the trophy. Along with another of their more experienced squad, Brian Kelleher, they pulled away again.
Manager Killian O’Mahony heaped praise on David Drake, who scored 1-9, including two two-pointers - one in each half.
“We’re starting to call him the veteran now at this stage,” he laughed. “He is a massive addition to us obviously. We are probably fortunate with the early exit of our hurlers this year, which is an awful thing to say from their perspective.
“It went right to the wire. We were up against it, even reading the papers during the week, Ballyphehane were favourites. And it made sense, don’t get me wrong, they’re absolutely flying. They had already won three cups.
“We took nothing for granted coming into it. We trained hard, didn’t change anything. So, it was incredible to win it.”
It was Drake’s goal in the 14th minute that gave them an early platform, they would lead at the break 1-5 to 0-5, having played with the wind. It was a lead they were made to work for by Ballyphehane.
“Three points up at half time, we were under pressure. The scoreboard was in our favour all right, but we had the wind behind us. And then we kicked on after half time but then they came back hard, very hard. Ballyphehane actually went a point up.”
The southside city outfit got the better of them midway through the half, they got two two-pointers also, to move 1-11 to 1-10 ahead and the final 10 minutes left to play.
“We kept the heads, in fairness to the lads. We levelled it and then we went up and got three big scores.
Our defence ground it out there in the finish.
“Age-wise, we are a mixed group. We have a couple of minors playing and then we have fellas up to the age of 35 - like this fella here, our joint-captain Cormac Nolan. He is a great player in his own right and he came on as well. So I’m delighted for him that he got a run today.
"And in saying that, this team wouldn’t be possible without the Senior and Junior A teams. It does feed in, we are all the one team as such.
"The management of the senior team and the junior A team have been a great help to us.”
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