THIS is the boost that Beara football needed. After a tough couple of years for the Beara senior panel, having to drop out of the college/divisional section in 2023 and ’24, their U21 footballers have brought fresh optimism to the peninsula.
Their reward for beating Bantry Blues (0-15 to 0-6) and Valley Rovers (1-9 to 0-9, after extra time) is a county U21A football final meeting with Bishopstown in Páirc Uí Rinn on Sunday at 2.30pm.
Beara are hoping to make it county title number five at this grade and a first since 2006. They have a proud record in this competition; only Nemo Rangers, St Finbarr’s and Castlehaven have won more than Beara’s four, but the divisional has an opportunity to equal Haven's total (five) on Sunday.
Selector David Harrington is excited to see the team face their biggest challenge yet.
‘There is a great buzz around the place. We’ve had two weeks off since the Valleys game. The lads are just picking up the pace again,’ the Adrigole man said.
‘One or two lads had a few niggles after the Valleys game but they are all clear this week. They were training over the weekend so they are fully fit and ready to go. We have a full panel to pick from.’
Beara, being a divisional side, had their first game of the competition against Bantry in the quarter-final. The nine-point was the ideal opener.
‘Once you get over the first game, it gives you savage momentum. A lot of these lads have been training with their respective clubs all year and it is very hard to get contact time with them together as a group. The first win really prepped us well for championship,’ Harrington explained.
‘The lads put in a really good performance against Bantry. Against Valleys, we had a very good first half although we were a bit disappointed in ourselves in the second half. We really dug deep in extra time to grind out the win. We are hoping for a 60-minute performance against Bishopstown to have a go at winning the county.’
Beara's Ben O'Sullivan goes past Valley Rovers' Ted McGrath during the county semi-final.
The standout players so far for the West Cork side include captain Fintan Fenner from Castletownbere and Adrigole’s Ben O’Sullivan, both have scored 0-7 each so far. Adrigole duo Tommy O’Sullivan (0-6) and Tom O’Connor (1-3) have excelled too. This has taken a mammoth team effort to create the possibility of winning a county title.
‘You can see clearly that there is talent at underage in clubs in Beara – look at the likes of Urhan, Adrigole and Castletownbere. Even this year, they all were competitive in their respective grades in the county and were unlucky not to go further,’ Harrington explained.
‘There is talent in the division and to get to an U21A final, it’s huge. It is well supported by the peninsula too, which is great.’
While Beara have a real chance of winning the prize, Bishopstown are a good team. They have beaten St Michael’s (4-8 to 1-13), Nemo Rangers (2-9 to 0-14, after extra time), Mallow (0-13 to 0-8) and Ballinora (4-7 to 2-6) on their journey to the final. The city side are aiming for just their second U21A county crown and have main scorers to keep an eye out on such as Conor Dunne (1-13), Gary Holland (3-7) and Kieran McFadden (2-3). Corner back Darragh O’Donovan is another player Beara have to watch, his pace and technical ability were evident against Mallow and Ballinora.
‘We have a fair idea of them. We know they have Cork U20s and they had a few in the development panels down the years. I know Brian Cuthbert and Ian Jones from years ago at underage with Cork. They will have their tactics right and they will be very strong on the day,’ Harrington explained.
‘They beat a very fancied Ballinora side last weekend. They have enough to be worried about with us as well. We have a good panel of players here who all can play good football. We’re more concerned about ourselves and we are very hopeful for Sunday.’
Even reaching this final has been a huge boost to football in Beara. There is no doubt though that this group of players and management want to finish off the year on a high.
‘These lads won the Premier 1 underage a couple of years ago. They are a very close bunch which is great, you need that in championship football,’ Harrington said.
‘Beara senior football hasn’t been represented clearly in the last couple of years. This run is giving the peninsula a massive boost and hopefully this will give massive momentum to the Beara seniors over the next couple of years.’
