Fellow Barrs stars provide example for William Buckley

William Buckley has already enjoyed success with St Finbarr’s and Cork.

A key member of the side that won the All-Ireland minor hurling championship in 2021, he was part of the Barrs senior panel that ended a 29-year wait for the county title a year later and then followed that with a starring role in Cork’s U20 All-Ireland of 2023.

The Rebels senior squad has more than a hint of a blue and gold undercoat, with Damien and Conor Cahalane having been joined by Ethan Twomey and Brian Hayes, who won All-Ireland U20 medals for 2020 and 2021, and Ben Cunningham, who was part of the 2021 and 2023 victories.

Buckley’s focus is naturally on the upcoming oneills.com Munster U20HC – Cork’s opener is against Waterford in Walsh Park on Friday, April 5 – but good performances for Ben O’Connor’s side can only improve his candidacy to make the step up.

“It is great to see the lads, Ethan, Ben, and Brian,” he says, “and then obviously you have Conor and Damien who are a bit older.

These fellas, you look up to them when you come back to the club. They are great around the place.

“But yeah, it is great to see that there is a pathway from 20s to senior. Full focus on U20, see how that goes, and hopefully then you can push on and make the senior panel.”

Cork are undertaking a double-defence of the All-Ireland in a sense – as well as being the reigning U20 champions, many of the squad featured in the outstanding minor triumph of 2021.

After going so long without wins at minor or U21/U20, strong Cork displays can only bode well in the long term.

“You can see now the lads that are kicking on,” Buckley says, “the likes of Brian Hayes and Alan Connolly, that were part of 20s panels, Ben Cunningham and Eoin Downey too.

“You can see these fellas that played in the underage system and pushed on to senior, you hope that a few more will come through and we will be competing at senior even more.

“The more success we can have [at U20], the more players we have going up to senior then in the next few years.”

GREAT 

Cork’s centre-back for the minor victory three years ago was another Barrs clubmate of Buckley’s, Ben O’Connor.

While he featured in last year’s U20 victory, he is now unavailable, having opted for a professional rugby contract with Munster.

Buckley knows that he will be a tough player to replace but, equally, he is optimistic that Cork’s depth can deal with the absence.

“Ben is some player, in fairness to him,” he says. “We played up along together at the club since we started at four years of age, he’s a great player and he’s obviously making a great career for himself in the rugby.

“He will be missed, but we've a big panel this year, we have lads that are coming in from the minor panel last year that are definitely filling the void of a few fellas that we'll be missing from last year.

It was up to him to decide what he wants to do and it has obviously worked out for him, as you can see with the Irish U20s and Munster itself. Fair play to him and I wish him the best.

"He was very good with us when we won [the county]. He is a great player, in fairness. If anything with the rugby ever didn't work out for him, he is welcome back to the club. But we obviously wish him the best of luck first with the rugby."

All of the U20 championship games take place on Friday night. After the Waterford opener, Cork host Clare on April 12 and Limerick on April 26. Their last round-robin game is away to Tipperary on May 3.

The team finishing top advances straight to the Munster final on May 24, with the second- and third-placed sides clashing in the final on May 17.