Robbie O'Dwyer eager to get Nemo Rangers back on top

Nemo Rangers manager Robbie O’Dwyer will be back for his third season as his club will be hoping to go one better in Premier Senior football championship.

The campaign this season began with nine league games and Robbie was relatively happy in how his team performed.

“We won seven and lost two but sadly were pipped for a place in the final but it was the opportunity to give some of our younger players an opportunity to taste Senior football,” said O’Dwyer.

Nemo’s goal in every season is all about the championship and Robbie looked back on this season with mixed feelings.

“Our opening game was against Ballincollig and overall, we only played in patches which was the normal for the majority of our season.

“We started okay before Ballincollig got on top of us and we had to come from four points down to turn it around, but it was a tough game and we were lucky enough to get over the line,” added Robbie.

The second game was against local rivals Douglas, but Robbie wasn’t entirely happy with that performance.

“It was another patchy display as we went up seven points in the first half and then for some strange reason took our eye off the ball and allowed Douglas back into it but we did end up comfortable winners.” 

The concluding group game against St Michael’s impressed the Nemo chief.

“I think this was one of our best performances of the season as we scored 4-18 in bad conditions and that score average helped up top the group and straight into the semi-final.” 

When Nemo were paired against Newcestown many pundits were predicting an easy win for the Trabeg outfit that O’Dwyer felt was disrespectful to them.

“People were putting Newcestown down summing them up as a dogged side, but we knew how good this team were as we played them in the group stage last season and only managed to win by a couple of points and they lost David Buckley with an injury in that game.” 

BIG SAY

In fact, O’Dwyer is predicting that Newcestown will have a big say in next year’s championship.

“Make no mistake this is a very good football side and I think they will be a team to be feared in the next couple of seasons.” 

The county final defeat to St Finbarr’s was hard to take as O’Dwyer felt luck wasn’t on their side.

“We were ahead at half time after playing well for a period and in the second half they hit us with 1-2 without reply that laid the foundation for the Barrs win.

Look we hit the posts three times and the stats showed that we only converted three out of 11 opportunities in the second half, but the players died for the jersey.

It certainly wasn’t effort that denied us the win.” 

This was the second defeat for O’Dwyer in a Cork county final, but he has confidence the club are moving in the right direction.

“There was huge improvement in 12 months and luck on the day wasn’t there for us against a very good Barrs side who were very unlucky not to win the Munster championship.” 

O’Dwyer hasn’t spoken to any players about next season.

“I have just been reappointed so I said we would let the players alone up to Christmas and will reconvene in the New Year and see where we are at.” 

On the player front Kieran Histon has returned to Australia but at the moment the majority of the Nemo squad should remain intact for next season.” 

Born and bred in Waterville Robbie still has the kingdom blood running through his veins and he was really happy to see his beloved Kerry lift the Sam Maguire this season.

“There is little doubt Cork had a great chance to beat them in Munster but Kerry got the little bit of luck needed.

From the Armagh game Kerry pushed on and with the new rules I think Kerry have players that really like playing in the rejigged format.

“When you have a team with David and Paudie Clifford plus Seanie O’Shea to name a few you always have a chance. From all the finals I have attended over the years this year’s win against Donegal was probably the greatest display ever witnessed at Croke Park.” 

The inclusion of Kieran Donaghy next season was a shrewd move by Jack O’Connor.

“Kieran has been there and done that and learned al lot with Armagh helping them win an All-Ireland and I am sure his basketball skills will be a big help for the Kerry forwards in the coming years.”