District Board SFC titles for O’Rahillys and Glenbeigh/Glencar

The Aidan O’Shea era ends on a high for Glenbeigh/Glencar as Laune Rangers make real progress

AFTER a 36 year wait for the Michael O’Connor Cup between 1975 and 2011, Glenbeigh / Glencar have done more than enough to make up for the absence of a senior district title for the club in well over a generation.

Their fourth win in eight years last Sunday saw them move to nine Mid Kerry successes in total and back level with Beaufort in joint third in the role of honour. That it came at the venue of last Sunday’s opponents made it all the more significant, but for their manager Aidan O’Shea it marked a significant end to this run over the senior side.

O’Shea took the reins of the side in the aftermath of their 2015 County Junior Final defeat to Templenoe before going on to win the delayed staging of the 2015 competition in early 2016 against Milltown / Castlemaine at Sunday’s venue as well marking a significant start and finish for the All-Ireland Junior Club Championship-winning manager.

Last Sunday owed much to the long hard journey the club have travelled to places like Ennis and Croke Park in putting them in to the upper echelons of the county. Indeed, O’Shea put last Sunday’s win down to experience.

“Maybe we didn’t show it [experience] at times, but thankfully it was there when it mattered. We stuck at it throughout and the character was there when it mattered as there were a number of occasions when we could have folded during the match,” the outgoing Glenbeigh / Glencar boss said.

While disappointed with the first-half display in general O’Shea felt that one of the good things about it was the late points accrued to make it a twopoint game at half-time. He also felt Laune Rangers showed a lot of the promise that the Killorglin club’s underage revival is starting to bring with it.

“I think Laune Rangers have definitely turned a corner and are on the way up. With the young lads they have coming through they will definitely dominate this competition in years to come so it is important to win on days like today when they are on offer to you,” he said.

One interesting feature of Glenbeigh /Glencar’s win last Sunday was how it came without their usual scorer-in-chief Gavan O’Grady as well as a ream of injuries that affected their year in general.

“We definitely didn’t have it our own way this year when it came to injuries, Tommy Cahill