Barryroe footballers looking to make amends for last season 

After winning the Bandon Co-Op Carbery JAFC for the first time in 2023, Barryroe would have been disappointed with how their defence went last year.

On the other hand, it just shows the strength of the divisional football championship in West Cork when Barryroe didn’t even manage to make it out of their respective group finishing behind Carbery Rangers' second team and St Mary’s.

There is continuity on the sideline this season with former Castlehaven goalkeeper Paudie Hurley the coach. This is his fifth year with the team in blue and navy.

“We are trying to build a bigger panel and making sure we are ready to attack the championship,” selector Gearóid Whelton says.

“We are happy in general with how it has gone so far, but plenty of room for improvement. That’s what you want. We have got something out of every league game, which has been important.

“Obviously last year was a learning curve for us all. We were disappointed with how last year panned out, but it was fine margins. Coming off the high of 2023 was a challenge to be honest, but we were missing players due to various reasons last year. Olan O’Donovan, one of our most important players, was injured.” 

It may have been a surprise to many outside of Barryroe when they created history in Dunmanway in 2023 when they beat a fancied Kilmacabea side in the Bandon Co-Op Carbery JAFC decider after extra time.

“A lot of work has gone into Ibane Gaels, the underage club between ourselves and Argideen Rangers,” Whelton said.

“We know the quality of players that we have within Barryroe. Maybe other clubs were surprised when we made the big breakthrough in 2023, but when you see these lads train and what they are capable of, we weren’t surprised. 

"It’s all about pushing on now though and learning from last year.” 

In this year’s Bandon Co-Op Carbery JAFC group stage, Barryroe will take on Castlehaven’s second team, St James’, who are just down from Premier Junior, and Kilbrittain.

“It’s a very tough group. The Carbery championship is always very hard to predict and I do think the standard will go up another notch this year.

“We have Castlehaven's second team first up and that’s all we are focused on at the moment. They will be very strong. All of the teams in our group will fancy of qualifying for the knockout stages.

“We do feel that we are more experienced now to meet the challenges head on. We didn’t get out of the group last year. When we won the championship in 2023, we had a lot of lads around the 21 and 22 age bracket on the team and maybe that had a knock-on effect in the following season.

“They are our leaders now and we feel that we will be in a good place when the championship comes around at the end of July.” Whelton concluded.