![\"Newcestown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5006282_3_articleinline_JC2026Div1FLNewcestownVsCarbery02.jpg\" "\\"Newcestown")
Newcestown manager Jim O’Sullivan. Picture: Jim Coughlan<\/p>\nIn 2025, Newcestown came so close to reaching a first county premier senior football final. <\/p>\n
The West Cork club \u2013 one of only three to be top tier in both codes \u2013 were unfortunate not to hang on in their semi-final against Nemo Rangers before losing in extra time.<\/p>\n
While getting back to such a stage again is far from easy, nobody in Newcestown is basking in the glow of last year, not least manager Jim O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year is history,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our goals and it\u2019s up to us. If you\u2019re happy with last year, the door is open and you can go out that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have the likes of David Buckley, Luke Meade, Jack Meade, Miche\u00e1l McSweeney inside in that dressing-room, they\u2019re going to drive standards so it\u2019s up to us to make sure that we achieve those.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a draw away to Cill na Martra in their opening McCarthy Insurance Group FL Division 1 game, Newcestown picked up their first win on Sunday, 1-19 to 2-8 winners at home to Carbery Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we laid the foundations really in the first half, against the wind,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew at half-time that there was a fairly significant breeze to come, so we were happy with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondly, I suppose we were we went in control a couple of times in in the second half but we gave away a couple of two-pointers, probably lack of discipline \u2013 I must admit that one of them was from the sideline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a kick in the guts really, but we recovered again and I suppose the last ten minutes, we kicked on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got a good goal in the second half and it brought them back into the game, but we responded well to that, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose 1-19 is good scoring but I think we left we left a lot behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newcestown manager Jim O’Sullivan. Picture: Jim Coughlan<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were probably missing four or five, but we\u2019re hoping to build up a panel \u2013 I think that caught us a bit last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always going to have fellas injured, especially when you’re playing for football one week and hurling the next week at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good, fellas will come on and make mistakes but that\u2019s part of it, it\u2019s how everyone learns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seven points of their total came from Cork panellist David Buckley, who had a fine all-round display, earning praise from O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s always going to put in a big performance, every day you go out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a real leader, inside the dressing-room and on the pitch as well. He carries the ball well, he’s strong and he has a great right foot on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially when you were against the wind, the way he carries the ball is a major asset to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2025, Newcestown came so close to reaching a first county premier senior football final. The West Cork…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-352030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352030","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=352030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}