Carbery boss Gene O'Donovan: 'They're young, they're fearless, and they don't care who's who'

Carbery manager Gene O’Donovan said Friday’s 2-23 to 2-15 victory over Muskerry in the McCarthy Insurance Group Divisions/Colleges Premier SFC seeded final at Páirc Uí Rinn was built on resilience, honesty, and a refusal to panic.

Speaking after collecting the Derry Gowen Cup, O’Donovan admitted there was nothing comfortable about seeing off Muskerry, even with an eight-point margin on the board.

“It’s never comfortable against Muskerry,” he said. 

“The goals they created against Avondhu, as you saw… and last year they scored seven against us.

“One of our big targets this evening was no soft goals. They got in for one – I won’t say an easy one, because the player scored a brilliant goal – but he shouldn’t have been able to get in there in the first place. 

"Keeping their goals down was the thing. If we did that, we were in with a chance. We left in two. We're happy overall.” 

They restricted Muskerry’s threat, defended with organisation, and leaned on a young, fearless group who showed no hesitation in taking the game to their opponents.

“If you look at the team, if you pick out some of our older players, we're a very young team overall,” O’Donovan says.

“They’re fearless. They don’t care who’s who. It’s not disrespect – they just have that fairness about them. And you can see the way they play football. We probably played across the field five times in 60 minutes.

“We played Duhallow last week, but before that we hadn’t been together for six or eight weeks since we played Carbery Rangers in a challenge down there. We had a couple of sessions earlier in the year where the most we had was 12 players.” 

The reality of divisional football – club commitments, split season and dual demands – remains a constant challenge, but O’Donovan said he has found a rhythm that works.

“I leave it up to the players,” he said. 

“I don’t deal with a lot of clubs, but I get support from clubs. I don’t go chasing players. If players want to play for Carbery, they come and play for Carbery. 

“I went back to 2020, looked at the Cork U20 team, and a lot of these lads have come through with me in systems from Cork West and underage squads. I contacted them, asked about availability – that’s how we worked.” 

O’Donovan rarely singles out individuals, but he acknowledged the impact of Cork footballer Ruairí Deane, who continues to be a driving force.

“Ruairí is an unbelievable player. We’ve probably had three or four texts all year, and that’s only in the last couple of weeks. Again, we went through Cork with them.” 

He also praised Dara Sheedy, who is managing his way through injury.

“I rang Dara after Cork's loss to Mayo to see how he was. His body wasn’t good after it, so we gave him the option. I don’t think he’s in a good place with the injuries at the moment.” 

Next up for Carbery is UCC in August, with the winners advancing into the championship proper. A big prize.

“It’s a good complaint to be still involved,” O’Donovan states. 

“We’re not carrying a lot of dual players, most of them are footballers. Hopefully we can negotiate with clubs and get them together for a kick around, a stretch, get physios to look at them. Just a couple of times to keep bonding them.

“We’re one game away from the championship proper. It depends on what UCC produce, but we’re there to be beaten.”