{"id":459552,"date":"2026-05-21T05:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459552\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:21:14","slug":"john-feeney-proud-of-progress-as-muskerry-gaa-builds-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459552\/","title":{"rendered":"John Feeney proud of progress as Muskerry GAA builds for the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

When John Feeney stepped into the Muskerry GAA chair before the 2021 season, it wasn\u2019t part of his plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He had just completed his term as secretary when the outgoing vice-chairman, who was due to take over, stepped aside for personal reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With no queue forming behind him, Feeney found himself taking on the role almost by circumstance rather than design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, as he looks back now, he speaks of the honour of following in the footsteps of the division\u2019s long-serving officers and the weight of responsibility that came with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go back and you see the people who\u2019ve been there in the past, it certainly is an honour to follow in their footsteps,\u201d the Dripsey clubman reflects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, it was unexpected. I had just finished my five years as secretary and the only reason I went in as chairman is because the outgoing vice-chairman had stepped down.<\/p>\n

\" Colm Gillespie of Muskerry wins this high ball from his opposite number Danny Linehan of Duhallow last season. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was certainly a big honour following in the footsteps of role models for me. None more so than Pat Malone, who put a huge amount of time in first as treasurer.”<\/p>\n

Feeney\u2019s own grounding in the game influenced how he approached the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI go in there looking at it from the point of view of somebody who played the game, somebody who was involved with teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I\u2019d been a selector with my own club Dripsey when we won the All-Ireland in 2009, so that\u2019s the angle I\u2019d look at it from.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That perspective made the struggles of the Muskerry footballers early in his tenure particularly difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMuskerry teams had slackened off a bit, particularly the football,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had gone to a new low and we had failed to field in a football championship match. We spent a lot of time getting them back up and going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“To be fair to Conor Hurley, who\u2019s been manager for the last couple of years, and his selectors \u2014 they won the divisional side of the championship two years ago, and last year we got to the divisional final again against Duhallow. They\u2019ve done a lot of good work getting the players back up and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago the hurlers did very well \u2014 we got to the final of the divisional section. But last year we didn\u2019t have access to Ballincollig players for most of the championship, and to be fair, Ballincollig had been the backbone of the team the year before.<\/p>\n

\"Imokilly'sImokilly’s Jack Leahy goes past Muskerry’s Brian Corcoran in 2024. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players performed brilliantly. People dismiss divisional teams, but if you\u2019re a player from a club who isn\u2019t senior and never likely to be senior, it\u2019s one great way of getting represented.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think of my own club \u2014 John Carey played both senior football and hurling for Muskerry, and for a fella in a junior club, that\u2019s huge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Feeney believes the division is in safe hands under new chairman Ed Warren.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cooperation with the clubs is excellent. The last two meetings we\u2019ve had this year, there\u2019s been full attendance from clubs, which is encouraging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe split season is hard enough so we need everyone on board. People don\u2019t see the work that goes into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We sat down for hours going through the championship programme. Then you\u2019re sending it to officers, getting it ready for clubs, giving them ten days to look at it before the next board meeting and so on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clubs have been very cooperative. The board couldn\u2019t function without them. I have full faith in Ed Warren that he will keep things going in the right direction.”<\/p>\n

Feeney has returned to his former role as secretary with Muskerry GAA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When John Feeney stepped into the Muskerry GAA chair before the 2021 season, it wasn\u2019t part of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-459552","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\/459552","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=459552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}