![\"Castlehaven's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4910726_5_articleinline_EOHCastleNew07.jpg\" "\\"Castlehaven's")
Castlehaven’s Michael Hurley is tackled by Newcestown’s Eoghan Collins and James Kelleher during the McCarthy Insurance Group SFL Division 1 game at Newcestown this year. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\nA couple of years ago, I put together a piece comprised of my top five club venues in Cork to cover games at.<\/p>\n
At the time, I was fresh on the scene and with no driving licence, so my scope was limited as to which games I could cover and how far from home I could travel.<\/p>\n
As a Midleton native, it meant that my rankings were heavily skewed towards clubs in east Cork. Due to both the geographical element, and my reliance on public transport.<\/p>\n
Thank God those days are over.<\/p>\n
The ranking I put together then, over two years ago, was \u2013 from first to fifth \u2013 Bandon, Carrigtwohill, Erin\u2019s Own, Cobh and Aghada.<\/p>\n
At the time of writing, I had covered GAA matches at only 27 different club venues, obviously not counting Ballinlough, Pairc Ui Rinn, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, MTU and the Mardyke. By the end of the calendar year, my venue count had stretched to 30, with Ballinhassig, Banteer\/Lyre and Glenville added, thanks to post-primary and U21 games.<\/p>\n
Now, with three years down and heading into my fourth year covering GAA for The Echo, the list of club venues checked off has reached 54.<\/p>\n
My colleague, Denis Hurley, who is on a mission to cover a game in all 166 club venues in the county, clocked 95 in July this year. He\u2019s likely added a few more in the months since.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not here to completely grab his idea, because if I was, I\u2019ll be a long, long time catching up.<\/p>\n
Given it\u2019s taken him 18 years to reach that milestone \u2013 and that he covered his first GAA game for The Echo when I was five \u2013 he\u2019s got a bit of a head start.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, I can see the appeal. And, despite being a 15 minute drive from the venue, Dungourney was number 54 added to my list. Interesting that Newmarket, Castletownroche, Carbery Rangers, and even Ballydesmond \u2013 an hour and three-quarter drive \u2013 had been added prior to my neighbours.<\/p>\n
So, to avoid repetition, I\u2019ll pick out five different venues this time around.<\/p>\n
Castlehaven’s Michael Hurley is tackled by Newcestown’s Eoghan Collins and James Kelleher during the McCarthy Insurance Group SFL Division 1 game at Newcestown this year. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n
Adventures to Newcestown have almost exclusively come in 2025 for their Division 1 Football League games, but it\u2019s always a venue I enjoy. Maybe Newcestown\u2019s brand of football adds to that feeling, but they\u2019re a great bunch, the scoreboard is always helpful, and there\u2019s always room for my camping chair near the Newcestown dugout.<\/p>\n
I know \u2013 east Cork \u2013 but Ballynoe always serves up brilliant hurling championship meetings between teams in north-east Cork, and has definitely been one of my favourites over the last couple of years. Bride Rovers versus whoever, it never disappoints.<\/p>\n
Fond memories here from playing, but a great one to cover matches at, too. The bank on the far side always adds something to the atmosphere, and when teams are using dugouts on the same side, it adds a bit of bite.<\/p>\n
When east meets north in the PSHC this is often the spot, and for good reason. The stand and bank on the opposite side give you an atmosphere akin to knockout games, and with the current championship format, they are usually are de facto knockout contests. Brilliant venue.<\/p>\n
Cue the east Cork bias allegations, but this is far and away my favourite venue at the moment. No matter the weather, temperature, or time of year \u2013 you can bank on the gale force winds whipping around Aghavine \u2013 and it always gives the games something I haven\u2019t found anywhere else.<\/p>\n
The inevitable \u2018tale of two halves\u2019 means games are always tense, and any gaps on paper between teams are usually wiped out by the wind factor. Aghavine serves up cracking contests, league or championship.<\/p>\n
![\"Midleton's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4910729_5_articleinline_EOHBrideMid03.jpg\" "\\"Midleton's")
Midleton’s Mikey Finn is tackled by Bride Rovers’ Cormac O’Sullivan and Cillian Tobin during the Mulcahy Steel East Cork under 21’A’ HC final at Aghavine this year. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple of years ago, I put together a piece comprised of my top five club venues in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2110,4365,1965,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-218275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-sport","tag-gaelic-football","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}