Ephie Fitzgerald making his mark with Kildorrery footballers as they aim to challenge again

IT wasn't that long ago when Kildorrery were genuine contenders for the IFC (now IAFC) title.

The North Cork club regularly made the latter stages of the championship for a good few years after they moved up to the intermediate ranks in 2007. Despite losing the county JAFC final that year to Canovee, a restructuring of the grades allowed the team in blue and white to move up.

Kildorrery reached the final of the IFC in 2008 and 2010, but the club have struggled to make an impression in recent years though and haven’t got anywhere close to returning to the decider at a grade the club won in 1981.

But despite all of that, there is fresh hope and enthusiasm again with a young team. Many of the players on the panel played a key part on the team that won the Avondhu U21 C football championship title last year. That gave the club a huge lift.

Kildorrery are under a new joint management team for the 2024 campaign of John Howard, Dave White and Johnny McCarthy with the experienced Ephie Fitzgerald the coach.

“I suppose I would have played for the club for a long time and I felt this was the right time to be involved,” says Howard.

“When the previous manager Brian McNamara and his selectors stepped down at the end of last year, the opportunity to be part of the new management was too good to turn down. I suppose, myself and Dave White would have played with each other and are great friends and we always said that we should go into management together if the time was right and we needed experience with us and that led us to Johnny McCarthy.

“It’s unusual in the sense that we have no actual manager, we are all in it together as a joint management team and that’s something that has worked well so far this season. Bringing in Ephie Fitzgerald as coach has been a major coup for us. It just happened that Ephie has friends in Kildorrery and that’s how it all came about really. The players love him and are really committed to this project. He has made a huge difference already even in this short period. An outstanding coach.” 

Howard and his fellow management team have gone into this with their eyes wide open and are fully aware that it won’t be a cakewalk. Kildorrery have lost their opening two games in the McCarthy Insurance Group Division 7 of the football league to Aghinagh by 11 points and then Cobh by six points. The next fixture for them is this Saturday at home against Gabriel Rangers at 6.30pm. It will take time and most importantly patience.

“It’s quite a young team, so it’s trying to get that balance right,” Howard says.

“We also have a lot of young lads on the fringes that we want to try and bring on as the campaign progresses. I know people are sick of this, but it’s really one game at a time for us, it has to be for us anyway and see where it takes us. This isn’t a quick fix thing where suddenly Kildorrery are back challenging in the latter stages again. We would love that to happen sooner rather than later but it's going to take time.

“When we started talking to Ephie Fitzgerald, he knew that this wasn’t going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a couple of seasons. We still have a bit of experience in Peter O’Brien and Shane Fitzgerald still involved which is great and they are real leaders in the dressing room."

In the IAFC group stage this year, the North Cork side will meet Gabriel Rangers, Adrigole and Dromtarriffe.

“It’s a very fine line between success and relegation with the group format,” says Howard.

“Every team is equal, which makes it fascinating. Our goal would be for Ephie Fitzgerald to get the best out of the players. We will take it one game at a time. We have Gabriel Rangers first up in the championship and everything is geared towards that." he concluded.