Cill na Martra manager Morgan O'Sullivan hails power of collective

Going into a new campaign having lost the previous year’s final brings pressure.

Having finished as runners-up usually bestows a favourite’s tag on a side and so there is a keen sense of the need to get off to a winning start.

However, when that opening game pits you against the team just relegated from the grade above – another automatically expected to contend – the stakes are raised even more.

So it was for Cill na Martra as they began their McCarthy Insurance Group SAFC campaign against Carbery Rangers in Sam Maguire Park in Dunmanway on Sunday night.

With the wind in the first half, the Gaeltacht side retired with a 2-11 to 0-7 advantage, though they had to remain resolute and take what chances came their way in the second period, holding out to triumph by 2-19 to 0-22.

Cill na Martra anager Morgan O’Sullivan expected a tricky encounter against the Rosscarbery side and that’s what transpired, with Shane Ó Duinnín’s first-half goals of huge importance.

“Ah yeah, absolutely,” O’Sullivan said.

“Just the way the championship is structured, everyone feels the pressure to get points on the board in the first game.

“When the draw was made, everyone was looking at it and we got a right tough draw. Carbery Rangers actually got more scores than us tonight but we got the two goals.

“Look, we are down a few bodies from the county final last year, Ross are down a few bodies as well, but we realise the talent they have, most of their team have played some level with Cork, I'd be very familiar with some of them, they're great guys and great players and their management are very good, so we knew that we had to be on it tonight to get anything out of the game.

“Thankfully, we got a couple of lucky breaks in the game with goals, and that's the difference at the end, really.”

Some of the movement and execution from Cill na Martra in the first half was of the highest order, benefiting from the coaching of O’Sullivan’s fellow Castletownbere native Alan O’Regan.

“That's what the beauty of our team is, the collective,” O’Sullivan said.

“A lot of our lads are coming through playing under-age at 13-a-side, some of them last year played junior B football and they're stepping up to this, whereas some of the other teams we’d be playing might have lads who have experience of being premier competitions underage and playing with Cork.

“It's the collective has to be good, because individually, maybe on paper, there's a lot of teams that are stronger than us.

“If our collective isn't good in that regard, then we would struggle, but thankfully the boys do row in together and there's a great old bond between them.”

It leaves them well set for a clash with Newmarket in three weeks – the Duhallow side overcame O’Donovan Rossa in their opener. Cill na Martra and O’Sullivan expect to have their personnel options bolstered.

“We're hoping we'll have some back,” he said.

“There’s four lads who played in the county final last year who are out of the country at the moment.

“I suppose we're no different to everyone else, everybody has people away or injured or abroad working, and we're the same.

“It's just a case of dealing with it when it arrives.”