FINDING a more suitable window to play the colleges/divisions sections of the county senior football and hurling championships could breathe new life into the competitions, insists Beara GAA Chairman Michael Murphy.
For the fifth time in six seasons Beara won’t field in this year’s county senior football championship, having had to withdraw from the competition the day before their opening game against Duhallow because they only had only 14 players available.
The Beara chairman believes players are interested in playing for their division but feels these games need to be moved to a more suitable window.
‘A serious discussion has to be had about the whole situation,’ Murphy told The Southern Star.
‘There is interest from the players, the clubs are under pressure to facilitate the players to play for the Beara team, and the fixture schedule is not suiting the clubs.
‘There was more availability of players for earlier in the season so moving the fixtures could help the situation, but having club games fixed for within two or three days of the divisional game would continue to be a problem.’
Beara’s game with Duhallow was fixed for Thursday, June 5th. The evening before, 4th, Urhan were involved in a Division 7 county league game with Inniscarra. On Sunday, 8th, Glengarriff footballers played a county confined junior B quarter-final. Of the six clubs in Beara, The Southern Star understands that only Castletownbere and Adrigole players were involved in the panel preparing for the championship. Murphy insists that if a new window can be found for these colleges/divisions games – with April put forward as a suggestion – it could help divisions like Beara and Avondhu (who also pulled out of the football championship) to field teams.
‘Earlier on in the year we had looked at the calendar schedule and we reached out to the players to see if the numbers were there. The feedback we got was it was going to be very tight for June, but if we could get the games moved to April we would have had comfortable numbers,’ the Beara chairman explained.
‘The divisions met with the county board and the decision to go ahead with the competition was made.
‘We made contact with Duhallow, who we were drawn against, to see if there was a chance of playing the fixture in April and they weren't able to do it. It was difficult to get together with different things popping up throughout the weeks.
‘We made a last-ditch effort in the middle of May to get the players to turn up on the night and fulfill the fixtures but with other games on for Urhan and Glengarriff, we couldn't get the numbers to play Duhallow.’
It’s a disappointing development for Beara football, given the division’s U21 footballers reached the county final last season – that highlights there is talent in the division. But given that Beara last contested the county senior championship in 2022, serious questions must be asked about what’s next.
‘Is there a future for this team? I do not know,’ Murphy admitted.
‘There are enough players who are interested to field a team, but finding a window that suits the players with other activities and games going on in the background is proving a difficult task.
‘The players are proud to wear the Beara jersey whenever they play. For some of them a Beara jersey is where they have gotten the most success in recent years between the minor and U19 county title wins, so I hope that something will be figured out to give the lads the chance to play for Beara again.’
Glengarriff football manager Seán Hurley believes that a Beara football team can be competitive, but it must be driven by the division’s two intermediate teams, Castletownbere and Adrigole.
‘You get the impression around the county that Beara is in a bad state football-wise. I was involved in the Beara senior football team for years and years in the 1980s and 90s. Beara football is never stronger than it is now. There are two intermediate teams, a premier junior team, two junior B teams and a junior C team,’ Hurley said.
‘There is no point in blaming the junior teams. If the two intermediate teams got their act together and decided to throw the lot in with Beara, they’d be in contention. They would be competitive. That’s my opinion on it and the way things have gone, some of these clubs aren’t releasing their best players.’
