Cork Youth team open defence of the All-Ireland title with an away win over Clare

The Cork Youth League had to come from behind to beat Clare District League 3-1 in the Munster Inter-League at Ennis last Saturday afternoon.

They trailed 1-0 at half time, however, goals by Ben Fitzgerald, JJ Foley and James Grayem made sure they made a winning start to competition that won last season.

There is great credit to Conor Murray, his management team and players as they had only two weeks to prepare for this feature, because last year’s manager only let the League know his decision to step away two weeks ago.

“I'm delighted with the result and It was a fantastic performance considering we had only two weeks to prepare,” Conor said.

“I thought we controlled the game throughout and were deserved winners in the end.

“Unfortunately, last year's Cork Youth management team were unable to commit to doing the team again this year so the Cork Youth League committee approached me about taking over.

“After some serious consideration I decided to accept, as it was a great opportunity to work with fantastic players from around the County. 

"The CYL committee have been hugely supportive in enabling us to be as prepared as possible so we are extremely grateful to them for their support.

“Don O'Mahony has been with me for 12 years at Leeside, so I was delighted that he agreed to join me. 

"I felt it’s very important also to bring someone into our coaching team who was not familiar with the age group so that we could have a real independent viewpoint from a player perspective and Cian Forde, who is currently with Cork City agreed to come onboard with us. 

"Cian is one of the most decorated coaches in Cork football and brings an enormous wealth of knowledge and experience to our set up.

“The Inter-League is a fantastic competition, as kids get to represent their League from which they take a tremendous amount of pride in. "Unfortunately, this year the competition is a straight knockout, which I don’t think its fair on the teams involved. 

"I feel the round robin system was a much fairer competition, as it allows kids to play a guaranteed minimum number of matches. 

"However, this is a great opportunity for the players to showcase their abilities at the highest level of competition,” Murray added.

The Cork Youth panel: Alex Bollard, Craig Nolan, Daniel Brennan, James Grayem, JJ Foley, Ronan Murray, Scott Busteed and Warren O’Mahony ( Leeside United), Ben Fitzgerald, Dara Birdthistler, Liam Lynch, Max Murphy and Rian Thornhill (Midleton ), Cillian Beale-O’Shaughnessy, Joey Fielding and Mathew Kiernan ( Carrigaline United), Cian O’Flynn and Darragh Sheehan ( Lakewood Athletic), Zack Lynch-Healy ( Leeds). Eoin Looney ( Kanturk), Olan Taaffe ( Avondale United) and Cian O’Callaghan ( Fermoy).