Carraig na bhFear are always there or thereabouts in both codes, but in recent years, more often than not, success has come with the small ball.
Their hurlers were pipped by Cobh for a place in the East Cork Junior A Hurling Championship final, but the footballers struck back in style – edging last year’s runners-up Carrigtwohill by a single point to book their spot in Monday’s decider.
For defender Rory McCarthy, those closing minutes felt endless.
“We were under serious pressure there towards the end,” he begins. “I mean, Carrigtwohill are always going to be a good team when we come up against them, so it was a great battle.
“The game kind of switched in the second half. We were still trying to push on, but the scores weren’t coming our way, and they were really bringing the game to us.”
Ronan Blackton, Erin’s Own and Rory McCarthy Carraig na bhFear with the Jim Ryan Cup at the launch of the East Cork Junior A Football Championship final in Ballinacurra. Picture: Denis O’Flynn
Even getting that far was no easy path. They’d already dethroned the reigning champions Castlemartyr in the quarter-final – a result that showed how badly this group want to win it.
“It’d be huge, to be honest. Personally, it’d mean the world to me,” Rory explains. “All I want to do is go out and win the east Cork football.
“I know the lads as well, everyone on the team wants it. We were driving for it all year. From the start of the year, that was the aim. And we’ll give everything to try and get that win.”
It’s been a long wait. Half a century since Carraig na bhFear last tasted Junior A Football success – fifty years of near-misses, restarts and rebuilds.
Erin’s Own captain Ronan Blackton and Carraig na bhFear captain Tadhg O’Donoghue before the East Cork JAFC group game in Glenville, with referee Willie Wallace.
Manager Liam Ryan has lived most of it, and he knows exactly what an East Cork title would mean.
“Oh look, it would be unreal,” Ryan remarks. “I’ve been trying myself since early on, trying to win it as a player. I came back as a manager then three years ago.
“We got to the final, disappointing that day. So hopefully we’ll take that back, the disappointment out of that, and put it into this year. Hopefully, 50 years on is on the cards!”
They mightn’t have made it this far without a moment of sheer instinct from Timmy Geaney – the “hand of God” save to stop a goal that preserved their lead in the dying seconds.
“Very good first half,” Ryan said. “ We played good football. I suppose we had a lead and just tried to protect that lead and they came back at us. But some last-ditch defending at the end. The hand of God, Timmy Geaney saved us, last kick of the game!”
Now, standing between Carraig na bhFear and history is a familiar foe. Erin’s Own edged them by a single point, 0-10 to 0-9, when they met earlier in the campaign.
“We played Erin’s Own and they beat us by a point. Deservedly so, I suppose.
“But look, they’re a senior club. You have that mentality with senior players. They’ll be probably favourites going into the final, but I wouldn’t write us off.”