‘I AM living proof that county finals don’t come around too often’ Dan MacEoin smiles, days out from his first adult county final.

The Ilen Rovers stalwart is 32 years young – emphasis on the young, he laughs – and made his senior debut in 2010, so he’s had a long wait to reach a moment like this.

‘It would mean everything if we could win,’ he adds, a nod to the long and winding journey the club has taken to reach Ilen’s first adult county final since 2007.

A few seasons after that, MacEoin came on the scene. He’s been there ever since. Dan has been the man for his club on countless occasions. Go back to the 2010 county minor B final triumph against Naomh Abán, when he kicked 1-11 – including 1-9 from play. He was 17 years old. And delivered.

Fast forward to the present day, and he shot 0-12 in the recent McCarthy Insurance Group Intermediate A Football Championship semi-final win against Adrigole. He kicked two late two-pointers in normal time to rescue Ilen and force extra time, before Rovers emerged 0-24 to 0-22 winners. Dan was the man again. Still producing, still delivering.

But dig a little deeper and you learn that day in Bantry was the first outing this season where MacEoin felt like himself.

An injury – osteitis pubis – sidelined him for Ilen’s entire Division 5 county league campaign and led to him missing his first-ever championship game for the club. His incredible record had stretched back to 2010, year after year of consistency.

Sharp shooter Dan MacEoin. (Photo: Paddy Feen)

‘I didn’t make it back in time for the first championship game this season. Well, I was back on the panel but wasn’t needed,’ MacEoin explains of the opening IAFC group win against Boherbue in Inchigeela.

‘The injury is fine now, but it came at me last winter. It was one of those ones where I thought I’d be back for the third league game, but it stretched out and out. In the end I missed the league, but I’m back three months now.

‘The hardest part was coming back when the lads were absolutely hopping. I had my own pre-season in the middle of the summer. It’s tricky then going into the championship season – you think you can snap your fingers and be at full tilt. But it was probably only the last day against Adrigole I felt like myself, which was great. I’m timing it well!’

MacEoin started the draw against Kilmurry and kicked 0-6 (4f). He swung over two two-pointers against St Vincent’s, added 0-2 against Mitchelstown, then produced his match-defining 0-12 haul against Adrigole, with a couple of two-pointers added in. Finding his groove at the right time.

‘I am loving it now!’ the former Cork underage football star says, when asked how much he’s enjoying his football this season as part of a winning Ilen team.

‘It’s funny in a sense because when the team is flying and you’re not on the pitch, that’s challenging. Everyone had been saying the new rules would suit me with the long kicking and the two-pointers, but when you’re not at full tilt it’s hard because you’re eager to give the team a lift.

‘It was satisfying to feel like myself against Adrigole, to kick a few scores when they were needed, and add something to the group because the lads have been working hard all year.’

That work-rate never dipped in those challenging seasons, he insists. But he concedes they were tough times. Three championship relegations in four seasons – and back-to-back league relegations too – weren’t fun. Quite the understatement. Ilen found it hard to stop the slide, but Intermediate A has proved a happier hunting ground. It’s a grade that’s given Ilen the opportunity to enjoy winning again.

Dan MacEoin and Flor O'Driscoll, team manager, taking a break from the interviews during the Ilen Rovers press night in the Celtic Ross Hotel. (Photo: Paddy Feen)

‘The grade restructure a few years back has been brilliant. If you have a bad year, you go down. If you have a good year, you have a chance of winning something,’ MacEoin says.

‘When I came in first, there were 17 or 18 senior clubs along with divisions and colleges. We were treading water, realistically. That was no place to be. Like other clubs, we lost players to emigration and other factors. But now every championship is competitive and there’s more interest – you’d put on Clubber now and watch a premier intermediate match you might never have watched before.’

Finding their feet at Intermediate A gave Ilen the chance to reset – and they have. Rovers have won back-to-back championship games for the first time since 2019. They are undefeated in this campaign, stretching across five games. Now they face Ballinora in the final this Sunday at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Compare that to the seasons they suffered through previously, including losing all championship games in 2023 and ’24.

‘We have been working hard every single year. No team goes out and doesn’t train hard. But it’s confidence that comes from winning. We had a decent league campaign – I wouldn’t say we had a massive league, but we got some good results and won some tight games. Winning is a habit,’ MacEoin says.

‘The management has done an unbelievable job – all of them. There’s good organisation, and with a bit of winning, the tide has started to turn. We’ve had a few tough years, but the dressing-room has always stuck together – that shows in how we’ve managed to turn the ship this year. When you add a few wins to that, you can see the bond in this team. We’ve come through a lot of tight games this season.’

This run to the final has lifted the club too. Instead of a post-mortem about where the year went wrong, Ilen were organising a media press night in the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery. It’s a club effort, MacEoin insists.

‘It’s great to see the lift this gives the whole community,’ he explains.

‘You look at the new lights gone into the training pitch, the massive work that has been going on for years. That work never stopped, even in the tough years.

‘There are great people in the club who have been putting it in, and it was almost thankless at that time. I really appreciate those people now that we’re in a final and everything is positive. I think about the people who kept their shoulder to the wheel, kept the thing going.

‘We all have parents who are washing jerseys – Jo MacEoin is still washing jerseys! Every match, she’s trying to find the jersey bag to make sure she does everything perfect! We have so many great people in the background, like the women who make the grub after training. That’s all appreciated.’

The shared hope is that Ilen can finish this season in style. With MacEoin purring, their chances improve. He’s had to wait for a moment like Sunday – and he won’t let it pass.