Nemo Rangers can find encouragement in depth despite another PSFC final defeat

The 2025 campaign ended in familiar frustration for Nemo Rangers.

A third successive defeat in a Cork Premier Senior Football Championship final, an unwanted hat-trick that jars all the more because of how close they continue to come.

And yet, within that disappointment, there is a deeper encouragement that remains uniquely Nemo.

Depth.

It is a quality unmatched by any side in Cork, in either code. Nemo are the only club whose second team operates at Premier Intermediate level – the third tier of the county championship – while their third team not only claimed the Seandún title this season, but pushed on to the Junior A Football Championship semi-final.

Two wins away from the fifth tier of Cork football, with a third team.

Speculative, perhaps. Ifs, buts and maybes.

It is also revealing. It shows the level of quality that runs through their first, second and third teams. And, in club stalwart Jimmy Kerrigan’s view, luck played its part in denying Nemo the opportunity of having three teams in the top five grades.

“Our juniors got to the semi-final and they were very unlucky,” he begins. “Now, they were well beaten by Donoughmore, but they lost a lot of players on the way.

“I was a senior selector this year, we took a lot of intermediates and obviously we'll take the best players when somebody's injured in the senior team, and they did the same obviously to the juniors. So for them to even get that far was great.” 

EVIDENCE

The evidence of that depth does not stop with championships. It can be seen, too, in the Jim Cremin Memorial Tournament, the annual over-35s competition hosted by Nemo in honour of a cherished clubman.

“For the last three or four years we've had that over 35 tournament for Jim Cremin, and we had two teams in it [this year]. We had two teams that could be over 35,” Kerrigan remarks. “It was very successful, we had 13 teams [involved overall] and it was a great day.

“But that's the depth we have. I think with our club a lot of fellas give back, they give back and they coach teams and that's what keeps us going.” 

Kerrigan is one of those who has given back over a long stretch – and continues to do so – though any suggestion of linking up on a management ticket with his son Paul is firmly ruled out.

“No, no no,” Jimmy laughs. “I'm going to be a selector again this year, but taking a break after that.

I’m at it too long.

“Paul's his own man, he's after getting involved with the Cork U20s this year now and no doubt he'll get involved in Nemo in the next few years, but I don't think that's healthy being involved with your son!”