Premier JFC: Kilmacabea keen to push on after promotion

Having finally broken through the junior A glass ceiling, Kilmacabea are keen to kick on.

Since 2014, the west Cork side had won four Carbery divisional titles – reaching the county final in 2018 – before getting over the line last year with victory over Donoughmore in the decider.

They open their McCarthy Insurance Group Premier JFC campaign against Na Piarsaigh in Ballinascarthy on Saturday at 4pm and captain Ian Jennings is relishing the challenge.

“Yeah, it's a massive opportunity ,” he said.

“It's kind of exciting there to have something new to be looking forward to, you're going into county stage in the middle of July, which would have been unheard of before until November and muck and rain and stuff to get to get to the county stage.

“In 2024, we lost to Inniscarra in the semi-final and, you know, we were sitting down after the game and I suppose everyone just said it's such a long road back.

“Obviously, Inniscarra went on to win it, so we felt we were really close and we felt we had a really good chance to get there but we were also under no illusions that the road there is such a long road.

“You have to win seven or eight games to get there, which is really tough. I think, once we kind of got a bit of momentum last year, we felt that we could get there again.”

Recent years have shown that teams coming from junior A have been able to challenge at premier junior level and Jennings believes the age profile of the Leap club is a benefit.

“We've a lot of fellas around kind of 28, 29, 30,” he said, “and then another cohort kind of 25, 26 and then there's another few who are younger that are kind of pushing on to make the team.

“The blend is good and we've a good crop of minors this year, so hopefully they can come in in the next few years and make a difference as well.”

They have already secured league promotion this year, reaching the Division 6 final. While they lost to Aghinagh in that, Jennings feels it can be put to good experience.

“There was aspects of the league final that we were very happy with and there's aspects where we didn't play so well,” he said.

“That happens and just to be up in Division 5 is huge for us. Two or three years ago, we were playing in the Carbery league and now to be in Division 5 of the county league is a massive step.

“Just to get up there is huge and having that extra quality of opposition next year is something that will really benefit us in the long run as well.”