Beara keen to take positives despite U21 defeat

Unfortunately for the Beara U21 footballers, their 2025 season took the title of shortest championship campaign in Cork.

Whereas most competitions now have a group stage, or at the very least a back door, the county U21 remains straight knockout. For most, that means defeat at the end of a successful divisional campaign but as Beara are themselves a divisional side, there was no tune-up before Sunday’s semi-final against Douglas in Macroom.

With the city champions coming in off the back of a quarter-final victory over Ballincollig, they settled well and led by 12 points at one stage in the first half. The gap at half-time was ten points and the same margin pertained at the end as it finished 2-14 to 0-10.

While obviously disappointed with the result, Beara manager Andrew Fitzgerald was proud of the effort and hopes that the experience can stand to the players.

“We knew we'd be up against it,” he said, “they're a really strong physical side, probably a lot of guys on the age.

“We're maybe a little bit young and inexperienced, probably didn't have enough preparation, so we were travelling in hope more than anything, but I think there were a lot of positives from the second half.

“I suppose the big thing from my point of view is a lot of the Beara lads got to see what it's like to play at the top level and hopefully they'll aspire to keep going and represent Beara at the top level.”

Despite the difficulty in corralling a group of players together at the age, given the various other commitments for 19-21 year-olds, Beara had 26 players togged out. The desire to play for the division was shown in the resilience on display as they battled to ensure that Douglas were not allowed to run away with the game.

Fitzgerald is hopeful that the structures in place in the peninsula will help those players to step up to senior level in time.

“I think that's typical of the Beara spirit,” he said, “those lads never stop playing until the final whistle.

“Regardless of the score, as long as I've been involved with Beara, lads always give 100 percent from start to finish.

“Mike Murphy, our chairman, is coming to the end of his term and he's put in some effort to get this thing off the ground.

“I think on a positive note, whoever comes in next, whoever, the board from Beara have been absolutely outstanding, the effort they've made the last few years to try and get this show on the road.

“I think the lads have showed enough that there's enough good players and talent in Beara to have a divisional side competing in the top level of the Cork county championship.

“Hopefully, whoever comes in will keep the same standards and that Beara will be competitive in the championship in the coming years.”