Thursday, 26h
July 2018 A Shot at Redemption
On Friday night next Ballinacurra will contest their
ty Final in 6 years against Grange, having lost
other two in most harrow- ing circumstances. In 2012 losing to Char-
leville by a point having lead the game for 55 min- utes a similar
fate befell
them in 2015 when as de- scribed by Paudie Palmer “ the best game played in Parc Ui Rinn in years” got away from them late on again by a point.
2015 was a bit of a
fairy-tale year as at the beginning of the year The Club were finding it very difficult to find someone to look after the team. Up stepped Thomas O’ Leary who was also an integral player on the Team. O’Leary went
looking for a backroom Team and
third Junior Coun- the
in Club stalwart Eric Har- ty (now chairman) found a trusted Selector. Then by a twist of faith stumbled across a Kerry man exiled in Midleton only itching to be involved somewhere. Not long after arriving Ea- mon Spillane was given the name “Coach” by cap- tain James Nagle. The ECJB title followed
in September of that year for the first time in 25 years and a lot of fellas after long playing careers finally had a medal. Two years at JA followed and after exiting at Semi and Quarter final stages the club felt that that the younger lads would de- velop better back down a grade.
2018 started out in a similar fashion to
2015,
a management crisis and again Thomas O’Leary
stepped into the void. This time recently retired player Thomas Houlihan came on board as the physical coach and Eamon came back again in what
role
nobody really knows. A first round draw
against the previous year’s beaten finalist Kilbrin, promised to be a tough task but the
“Village”
side proved up to it, this was followed by wins over Whitchurch and Glengar- riffe. So what does Eamon Spillane
think of
chance Finals are one off games that seem to take on lives of their own, some- time form can just dip for some lads, others rise to it, there is the occasion and then there are nerves of course so its going to be how we as a group handle all this. All of the credit for get-
info@eastcorkjournal.ie their
chance on Friday night? “I think we have a right
ting here is down to the Lads themselves, Tucker is a great guy who stepped up when no one else want- ed it, the work he puts in behind the seances is tre- mendous. Hulla has been a great also the lads all knew him from playing where I guess he was a bit of a Messer and joker, but he always had a high work ethic as a player and he has brought that with him, has taken this role very seriously and to fair he has been great. So what does Eamon Spillane bring to the set up?
“Sometimes I wonder
that myself, I was here in 2015 with Tucker and fin- ished up last year as we are moving back to Glenflesk later this summer. I’ve 3 kids under 8 and am self employed so finding the time to commit fully was always going to be difficult.
However, Tucker makes
a fairly convincing argu- ment when he wants to mostly because when he starts
talking fast I can’t
understand him, so I could have agreed to anything. Circumstances meant
that I wouldn’t be moving until late August and I had been around the lads for that last few years, a lot of the lads are getting older, some married with kids so for some lads this year rep- resents a chance that most likely they won’t get again.
I’d like to think that we
have had instilled an eth- ic in these lads that every time one of the lads picks up and puts on the jersey that they respect it, firstly that in a small club like Ballinacurra that it was the guys trough the 90,s and 00’s and before that never got to a final but kept play- ing away to keep the show on the road that it’s there
Jersey too. The second is and I’m
sure that lads are sick of me saying is that for a small panel
of players,
Work rate and Hones- ty will equalise for other shortfalls and in this bunch for the most part have all bought into that.
So who will be the
Match Winner on Friday? Its going to take 19 or 20
of them to put in 10 out of 10 performances. Grange are on the go a
while advancing to the lat- ter stages most years so to use the cliché its going to be a team effort. James (Nagle) is obvi- ously special. Not only as the player but as a person too he’s special he is the leader of this team and his performances have
been
out of the top drawer. How he didn’t walk onto the Cork Juniors Ill never
15
know. Jake, Kelvin, Gylnn,Da- mian Daly and Padric Na- gle have all been playing very well, I think there is a big hour in Jake because when he clicks into gear he’s a Rolls Royse of a footballer.
Look everything has to be looked at in perspective, it’s been a hugely difficult two weeks for the Club and the Village in gener- al, Kenneth’s death puts matches into perspective, he was involved with us in 2015 and what happened was just so tragic, if we can come back down the road with a County Title it will bring a smile back to peo- ple, at least for a few days.
@eastcorkjournal / #eastcorkjournal
eastcorkjournal
Tel: 021 463 8000 • Email:
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