BEWARE of Rebels bearing platitudes. Cork champions Cill na Martra have been making all the right ‘happy to be here’ noises in the build-up to Sunday’s All-Ireland Intermediate final against Armagh and Ulster top dogs Cullyhanna.
But with canny former Tipperary, Wicklow and Roscommon manager John Evans at their helm, the men from West Cork’s Gaelteacht region will fight tooth and nail against Steven Reel’s team in the Croke Park decider.
Cill na Martra have had to do that in almost every championship game so far and their “fairytale story” almost never happened. In their championship opener in Cork (a quarter-final) they trailed Iveleary by five points with 40 minutes gone. With their championship lives hanging by a thread, manager Evans had no choice but to throw injured duo Thadg Corkery and Anthony Cooney into the fray. His team won by three points and, just under four months’ later, they’re in the All-Ireland final and Sunday will be the first visit to ‘Headquarters’ for one of their players.
Like Cullyhanna, the Cill na Martra club (a 20-minute drive from Killarney) is the focal point of a rural parish and this is their first foray outside their own county. Late heroics from ‘super sub’ Shane O Duinnin saw them pip neighbours Bantry Blues in the Cork Premier Intermediate Championship final and they went on to beat Clare’s Kimihil, Kerry’s Milltown/Castlemaine and Limerick’s Mungret/St Paul’s to win their first ever Munster crown.
Last weekend Cill na Martra faced Connacht champions Castlerea St Kevin’s in the All-Ireland semi-final and once again Evans’s battlers came out on the right side of a tight game with a one-point win thanks to goals from Micheal O Deasuna and go-to frontman Daniel O Duinnin.
Selector Gearoid O Healaithe visited the two schools in the parish on Thursday morning to gauge excitement levels and says they are “at fever pitch” as the entire community prepares to make the journey to Dublin.
“It’s like a fairytale to be honest,” says O Healaithe.
“We’ve been trying to win the county title with this team for the last four years and we were beaten every time by a point or two in the semi-finals. So we were delighted to get over the line this year at the fifth time of asking and the bandwagon has rolled on.
“We were lucky to have the home draw in the first round of Munster against the Clare winners and we got another home draw against the Kerry champions. That was advantageous, it was worth a few points.
“Castlerea were a very fine team last weekend and we got a good goal and we were very fortunate to benefit from an error in their defence for the second goal.”
Cill na Martra have watched all the footage they’ve been able to gather of Cullyhanna and O Healaithe says the Cork men’s “hands will be full” on Sunday.
“We’ve seen a few of their games,” he said.
“They are a fine team, they have fine players who’ve worn the Armagh colours, very good forwards with a defined gameplan that they use to great effect.
“They are like ourselves in that they’re a small club in Armagh and they want to make their own history and good luck to them. We’re delighted to be in the final and I hope we have a sporting game which, of course, I hope we win.
“The bookies have made them favourites so our hands will be full on Sunday but we’re going to enjoy the occasion.”