Ray Keane: 'This is going to be their fourth county final of some form in twelve months'
Boyle Manager Ray Picture Going Denis Is Preparing Go Again: To Keane Aghabullogue Again
For Kilshannig and Aghabullogue the dream of senior football is alive for another week after they finished all square on Saturday night in the final of the Cork PIFC, and as Kilshannig manager, Denis Reen, said afterwards “and that’s the most important thing.”
Reen had just watched Darragh O’Sullivan rescue a draw for his side with two frees in the third minute of added time, and he was enthused by what he had just seen.
“We are. If you were a Cork man, you’d be proud of that, wouldn’t you? The exhibition, the football, the skill level for Premier Intermediate Football. Played in the Theatre of Dreams, the second-best pitch in Ireland bar Croke Park. Oh my God. It was a brilliant game football, high intensity, breaking the lines hard, two teams just going at each other, with absolute respect for one another.”
Neither side could have been too disappointed after a superb spectacle that could have gone either way. Aghabullogue’s manager, Ray Keane, wasn’t in the mood to be fixating on Kilshannig’s late scores, but that’s because he can stand back and see the bigger picture.
“You could say that, but it depends on whether your glass is half full or half empty! But I’ve met you plenty of times this year after championship action, and our job when we came in here was to actually maintain status. Then we moved on, get out of the group, actually got to the semi-final. We’re in the final, and do you know what? We’ve a second one!
“This particular group, this is going to be their fourth county final of some form in twelve months, which is phenomenal, I’m sure, for anybody who grew up in Aghabullogue, and who have put in, maybe, fifty or sixty years of their lives into club. To be thinking that this group of players could actually have a fourth one, it's phenomenal, really, when you think about it. Yeah, we could have won the game, but it could have gone the other way just as easy.”
A collection of the latest sports news, reports and analysis from Cork.