Extended campaigns have stood to Aghabullogue as they prepare for step up to Senior A

Aghabullogue have got used to long years in both codes.

In 2023, the Coachford club won a county intermediate A hurling and football double; then the following season saw them reach the Premier IFC final at the first attempt while having to endure a relegation play-off in the hurling that went to a replay.

Last year, they managed to take the extra step in the football and bounced back again in the hurling, securing a second double across three seasons.

They will begin life in the senior A football championship on Saturday evening, with Kilmichael the venue for a clash against Dohenys (7pm). Aghabullogue attacker John Corkery, in his 16th season involved, is enjoying the recent success and feels that the setbacks – they lost finals in the IAHC in 2020 and IAHC in 2022 as well as the 2024 disappointments – have served to imbue them with a strong resilience.

“It was probably ten years where there wasn't much,” he says, “we lost a couple of finals, against Grenagh (2013) and Cill na Martra (2018), but we were well-beaten in both them.

“The last couple of years, it's just been brilliant – you're never going to leave it when it's going like that at the moment. You're doing everything you can to try and stay with it as much as possible.

“It was tough in 2024, that was very hard to bounce back from, especially with the way the hurling ended.

“We would have taken your hand off to get to the premier intermediate football Final the first year up, but then getting relegated in the hurling was a hammer blow. That wasn't in the plan at all.

“They both went to extra time and a replay. It was a long slog, to get nothing out of it, really.

“We probably really surprised ourselves getting to that premier intermediate final that year and maybe that gives you confidence then the following year, to know you're there or thereabouts.

I said in an interview at the start of that championship that we were looking to stay up and that was 100% the case, but it just snowballs.

“You have to win your first game, and it's the same this year, like, if you don't win the first game, you're chasing your tail straightaway all the time.”

Consistent

Key to Aghabullogue’s progress has been the impact of Ray Keane’s football management and the hurling side led by Micheál McGrath. While Keane’s brother Peter was briefly involved as the boss focused on Cork U20 commitments, the lack of wholesale change ensures no upheaval.

“It just gives a bit of continuity, especially when you're involved so late in the year – if you were trying to change things, it'd be very hard to get people,” Corkery says.

“A lot of people, a lot of clubs are sewn up by December, by the time we were even starting to think about it, so, yeah, it's great.

“Everyone's getting on grand together, so there's no panic.”

And that is important when there are so many dual players, making it a pleasure rather than a pain to combine both codes.

“Oh, yeah, 100%,” Corkery says. "You can lay it all out, you know exactly, from maybe April, May, we know exactly what's happening for the rest of the year.

Both managements have agreed the schedule and you know what you're doing every day and you can plan everything around that.

“It sounds like a lot on paper and maybe I'm downplaying it, but, yeah, we're just used to it.”