Kinsale want to build on historic divisional U21 success

Kinsale manager Kevin Cahill wants his players to build on their famous triumph last Friday evening in Belgooly.

They defeated Carrigaline on a scoreline of 2-18 to 1-12 in the Huntsman Bar and Restaurant Carrigdhoun U21 A football championship final.

The success was Kinsale’s first at this level since 2010. It has been a long time coming.

“It’s an important win for the club,” Cahill said post-match.

“We’ve been working for this for 15 years since we last won this. We knew we had a good panel with the minor team that we have and with the teams that have gone before them over the last couple of years. So we knew we had an opportunity and we said this in the dressing room before the game.

“The boys came on the field and they took the opportunity. We got a bit of luck as well, to be honest. Carrigaline are a fine side. A lot of their play was going through Ryan Delaney, he then got injured.

“That was a big blow to them and it was a big relief to us and I hope he’s alright. But it just made it slightly easier for us.

“We were very happy with our backs this evening. We thought they worked very hard. One thing we’ve been working on with our defence, I suppose, is trying to stand up the opposition team and turn them around at every opportunity.

“So they did that very well this evening and they just cut down on the goal opportunities that maybe we left in along the way, so we’re delighted with that.

“It was an excellent team performance. It would be unfair to single out a particular player.” 

Kinsale will now progress to the county championship with not many outside of their club expecting them to do anything. They are used to the underdog tag. 

Few would have predicted that they would be the last ones standing in the Carrigdhoun U21 A football championship this year.

“Look, everything from now on is a bonus,” the Kinsale boss says.

“We’re delighted with this result. We won’t get ahead of ourselves. We’ll celebrate this tonight, the boys will be back focused on hurling championship against Belgooly and then the football championship against Cobh at adult level.

“We’ll be looking for this group now, I suppose, to build on this opportunity that they have and to build at the U21 championship level again for next year and the years to come as well.” 

There has been a lot of criticism about the scheduling of the club U21 football championships on Leeside at the start of the year. Many divisional U21 football finals were happening in August due to the bad weather and a deadline to get the games played back in February.

“I understand the difficulties. There are huge scheduling difficulties around the U21 grade, but I know from talking to all the young fellas here and young fellas in other clubs, whether it be Carrigaline or Valley Rovers or elsewhere, there’s a huge appetite for this. 

"This is their last opportunity to play together as a group in an underage structure and they really cherish that opportunity.”