Future bright for Clonakilty despite Frewen Cup final defeat

Clonakilty Community College were left devastated on Wednesday afternoon after a fantastic battle with a fancied St Brendan’s College Killarney side.

The Frewen Cup final was played in front of a large and vocal crowd in Banteer with the Kerry outfit expected to win with a bit to spare.

The fact that Clonakilty's players and management had their hands on their head after the game told the story.

It really was a brilliant performance from the West Cork side, a game where they were the better team in truth. There’s an old saying though that goals win games and that couldn’t have been more true in this encounter.

St Brendan’s won on a scoreline of 3-7 to 0-15. The wait for a Cork school to break Kerry's stranglehold on this competition goes on. It’s 2016 since a side from Leeside won the Frewen Cup, which was Coláiste Chríost Rí.

A Riley O’Donovan two-point effort right at the end of the game to win the encounter for Clonakilty and the silverware dropped short.

While it’s another loss against Kerry opposition for a Cork team, there are plenty of positives to be taken out of this from a Clonakilty point of view.

It was no wonder selector Dan Nyhan was proud as punch of his troops after the one-point loss.

“We are very disappointed, we knew that we were going to be up against an unreal team, which St Brendan's are in fairness because they have blown aside every team that they came up against this season,” he said post-match.

“We knew it was going to be a massive challenge. But in saying that, I’m proud of our lads. We took St Brendan’s right down to the wire. Who knows, on a different day with a few more different decisions, we could have won the game.

“Just a few little decisions, maybe, that just went against us. And look, superbly proud of them. They did our school a great, great distinction out on the pitch.

“St Brendan’s have a huge tradition in this competition. We’ve never won it. They’ve won it, I don’t know how many times now.” 

While Clonakilty will be disappointed to have lost the Frewen Cup final to St Brendan’s for the second season on the trot, the future is bright.

The senior team won the Simcox Cup last Friday for the first time and are in the Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-finals in January where they will play High School Clonmel.

“We’re probably doing something right. There’s huge work going on in the school.

“There’s great support in our school at the moment from our principal, our deputy principals. There’s great people involved in our staff room managing teams from U14 up to senior. There’s great structures in place.

“The clubs have been fantastic. The clubs are giving us these players and we’re getting great work done with them and they’re volunteering their time to make Clonakilty a better school.

“It’s a disappointing end to the campaign, but there are some of the players involved in the Corn Uí Mhuirí squad. That’s going to be massive for them after Christmas.

“The future is very bright and this is our second time on the bounce making the Frewen Cup final. We wanted to win it, but it hasn't worked out to date.

“The future of football in Clonakilty Community College is very bright and we’ll just keep this momentum going for as long as we can.”