Aghabullogue captain John Corkery: It has been a special year for the village

Aghabullogue captain John Corkery felt it was fine margins in his side’s loss to An Ghaeltacht on Saturday at Mick Neville Park in Rathkeale.

The Muskerry side lost out to their opponents in the AIB Munster Club IFC final on a scoreline of 2-12 to 1-8.

Aghabullogue did briefly lead in the early stages, but An Ghaeltacht were the better team. They only pulled away in the final number of minutes though to prevail by seven points.

“You can't fault the effort or work rate,” Corkery said post match.

“Look, seven points, people are going to look at that and maybe will say that we were well beaten. Maybe we were, but anyone that was here in the ground will have seen that we worked until the end.

“I think we scored two points in the second half, it's just not good enough really even if we were playing against the wind.

“We thought we had a great chance coming up here and I'm very proud of the lads. What we've done in Cork is brilliant, but like you come here and you want to win.

“We had full expectation to try and win here today and win Munster, but look, disappointment is the initial feeling right now.” 

Aghabullogue were level at half-time, but that was having played with the wind in the opening 30 minutes. There might have been a feeling of frustration in the dressing room, but Corkery and his teammates were still upbeat that they could succeed in the second half.

“I wasn't worried at all at half-time,” the captain says.

“I felt we could maybe get a run at them, but in fairness they're a great side.

“Look, you'll be trying to pick things out of them ahead of the game, weaknesses and that, but they were good. They controlled a lot of the game against the wind in the first half.

“We needed a cushion of four or five points at the interval, but we didn't get that.

“At the end of the day, it is a seven-point loss. The score is the score. We lost by seven points.

“We needed to pick seven points up to draw it. We had chances that we didn't take. Maybe there was a goal or two we could have got but it didn’t happen in the second half.” 

The topic of the grading system always rears its head around this time of the year. At the end of the day, it’s Cork’s third grade champions coming up against Kerry’s second grade winners.

“It’s Cork against Kerry, it’s two teams going up against each other. You have to try and beat what is in front of you. An Ghaeltacht were better on the day.

“Look, we didn't get the result, but the parish has gotten closer this year. People are more than happy. I was in the shop this morning getting something, an old woman gave me a hug, thanking me for what we’ve done this year. They're the important moments.

“You have to cling on to something after a loss, but at the end of the day, it's a game of football. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve done this year and we’ll come again next year. We will be playing senior football in 2026.

“It has been a long year since we played our first round against Bantry Blues at the end of July. It has been more or less week on week since then. The odd break thrown-in.

“It has been an honour to captain the team for the last two years. I don’t know if that’s going to continue or not, but it has been an honour.

“It has been a special year for the village winning the double. We’re delighted with what we’ve done this year.”