BY JJ HURLEY
KINSALE GAA rewarded their talented young guns with a gala awards night at Actons Hotel. Nine winning sides in all four codes received recognition for their on-the-field success in 2023.
The origins of this success lie in a decision by the club, made 12 years ago, to adopt a strategy based on one club and one vision. It's an opinion shared by the club chairman Ger Webb, as he points to the shift in Kinsale GAA's culture as a result of the initiative targeting the grassroots level.
That decision has put the club ahead of the planned merger of camogie, ladies football and GAA in 2027, remarked the LGFC chairperson Catherine Murphy.
'It's the first year all the underage players in all codes came together, and it worked really well,' she said.
Kinsale is a club with an established tradition in football, boasting three teams in the U16 West Cork league in 2024, but camogie is beginning to hold its own too. Established only in 2015, the junior team has now been regraded from the C to the B grade, and the club will also make its debut in the minor grade in 2024.
'This is a significant evening for us as a camogie side of the club; we are brought into it, and we are saying we are here and making our mark,' reflects the camogie chairperson Grainne Gould.
The camogie players are also coming to the attention of the county's selectors as Catherine Murphy claimed Kinsale's first All-Ireland camogie medal last year on the Rebels’ U16 squad, stepping up onto the minor camogie panel.
Along with Murphy, Robyn Farley is also featuring on the Cork U14 panel, and these girls are certainly setting a trend for others to follow.
Role models are crucial in all sports, and Cork stars Sadhbh O'Leary and Fiona Keating made that link at the event, presenting the players with their awards. All-Ireland camogie winner Keating, a Courcey Rovers stalwart, has a connection with the club as both her sisters line out for the Kinsale junior camogie team.
On the importance of such nights to encourage younger players and reward them for their hard work, Keating spoke fondly of the medals she received from Rena Buckley and Briege Corkery.
These nights are not just about medals but about building for the future, as Kinsale hopes to replicate the victory of its underage teams at adult level. Like many clubs that raises the spectre of retaining younger players. While there is no magic formula, Kevin Cahill, team manager of the winning county U16 footballers, suggests a solution 'lies in allowing players to come to the pitch, engage with their buddies, make it social, and make it part of their identity'.
The idea has its merits, but only time will tell if this generation can fulfil their youthful promise.
