The Auld Triangle and Muskerry Sports Star Award winner for the month of April was Daniel (Dano) Dineen. The Cill na Martra forward was in scintillating form in April, helping his club lift the Muskerry U21 A football championship for the very first time after a terrific battle with Kilmurry, winning after extra-time in the final replay, 3-16 to 2-15. The 19 year old scored 3-4 in the replay, which propelled his side over the line. Dineen also helped his club defeat Gabriel Rangers in Round 1 of the IFC in early April.

Dineen was joined by his family, team mates and Cill na Martra representatives at the presentation in the Auld Triangle Macroom recently. The forward was delighted to reflect afterwards on a rewarding month and is looking forward to the coming months.

The Cill na Martra hotshot is overjoyed to have received the award and joins the list of elite stars that have collected the distinctive award since it started three years ago.

“I’m extremely honoured to achieve this award because there are so many good players out their making this unique award even harder to win. I’m delighted that I got picked for April.

To be honest with you, I was very shocked to receive the phone call about the award because as I said, there are so many good players in Muskerry and even from my own club Cill na Martra that could have received the same phone call that I did.”

April couldn’t have gone any better for the talented 19 year old, scoring 3-4 in the U21 final replay, and helping his club Cill na Martra get off to a good start in the IFC.

“Yes, April was an excellent month for the club both at U21 and intermediate level. We managed to make history, winning the first ever U21 A football championship in the club’s history. The village was and still is on a high after us winning this final and us as a team are extremely honoured to have achieved it.”

After an outstanding drawn game in the U21 decider last month, what the large attendance witnessed in the replay, has been described as one of the best games ever seen in Macroom’s famous pitch in a very long time. Dineen looks back on the memorable triumph.

“The replay was a strange one in the sense that we could have lost it as easy as we could have won it. Once we went into extra-time, I knew that we had the legs to get over the line and we did. Everyone seems to focus on what I scored in the game, but if it wasn’t for our defenders, we might have not won the game.”

Once that final whistle went the ground literally erupted. The crowd made their way onto the pitch and it was emotional meeting all the ex-players, supporters and young lads on the pitch. The win just showed how much this meant to everyone involved with Cill na Martra. It has given everyone a massive lift.”

The CIT Student was one of the stand out players during his time with the Cork Minor football team in 2015. Dineen confirmed he decided to take a break from the Cork U21 set up at the start of this year.

“It’s every young lad dream to line out with the Cork team at some stage in their career. For me, this year I took the year out to concentrate on club football. I could see how much of an effort our players were putting in at training, so I decided that if they were going to put in that much effort for the year, that I should do the same. But of course, going back to Cork, I would love to get the chance to put on the jersey again in the future.” He concluded.

Interview by Barry O'Mahony