Ger McCarthy looks back on the SuperValu West
Cork Schoolboy’s League involvement at last
week’s prestigious Kennedy Cup competition,
the process involved in putting the final squad
together and a typical day in the life of the
Kennedy Cup tournament.
The West Cork Schoolboys League enjoyed mixed
fortunes at this year’s Kennedy Cup tournament
in Limerick University but the Under13 representative
side ended the week on a positive note with back
to back victories over the Carlow and North Tipperary
Schoolboys Leagues. The Schoolboys Football Association
of Ireland (SFAI) organises an annual Under 13
competition known as the Kennedy Cup. The competition
is an opportunity for each of the various affiliated
SFAI leagues to display their talent at youth
level with 32 Leagues represented in Limerick
this year. The process to pick a final squad of
20 for the Under13 representative side began 7
months ago.
The WCSL coaches - Martin Henwood and Conor Uhl
– invited over 60 players from each West
Cork based club and any other individual players
that showed enough potential throughout the 07-08
season to Kennedy Cup trials back in November.
Conor Uhl explains the difficulty in finalising
the squad of 20: “It’s always difficult
to decide on the final squad and looking back
you’ll always say were they the right choices,
but you have to believe that the players you selected
are good enough to produce the goods”. The
squad trained twice a week on Tuesday evenings
and Sunday mornings right up until the weeks before
the tournament began. Warm-up matches against
tough opposition such as Avondale, Cork Schoolboys
League and last seasons West Cork Kennedy Cup
team were held before heading for Limerick and
the big kick-off.
A TYPICAL DAY
The players and mentors arrived in Limerick University
on the 9th of June and settled into a week totally
immersed in football. From Monday to Friday a
typical day at the Kennedy Cup tournament for
players and mentors is as follows. Players are
woken-up at 8:30 and go for a walk to loosen out
before attending breakfast. The full squad take
part in a warm up for any upcoming morning fixture,
play the match and then warm down to prevent players
stiffening up. The squad then relaxes for half
an hour before attending lunch in the University
canteen. The process is repeated for any evening
matches and then everyone heads back to allotted
accommodation to relax before dinner. The squad
may then head to cinema or play uni-golf to take
the players minds of the tournament pressure before
heading to bed at 10pm with lights out at 10:30pm.
The Kennedy Cup tournament is professionally organised
and carried out, giving any player lucky enough
to attend a brief glimpse of the life of a professional
footballer. Scouts from Premier League clubs from
all over England, Europe and beyond attend the
Kennedy Cup every year in search of any up and
coming talent. Both the intensity of the competition
and quality of opposition increases with every
passing season. West Cork is one of the smallest
Leagues in the country making any success at such
a tournament difficult to say the least.
NERVOUS
West Cork were drawn in a tough opening group
in this year’s competition against the North
Eastern Counties (NEC), Longford and the Galway
Schoolboy Leagues. Day 1 of the competition saw
West Cork and NEC play out an entertaining 1-1
draw in Group7 with Tadgh O’Mahony netting
for the WCSL after good work from Conor O’Neill.
It proved to be a nervous afternoon for the West
Cork side who failed to settle into their normal
quick-passing game. The following day (June 10th)
began on a disappointing note with a 2-0 defeat
to Longford. West Cork dominated the match with
Gavin O’Shea missing a penalty and Conor
O’Driscoll rattling the crossbar before
Longford pounced to score twice against the run
of play and grab all 3 points. A frustrating day
got even worse when later in the evening Galway
defeated West Cork 2-1.
The WCSL side put in a terrific second half performance
and deservedly pulled a goal back through a Gavin
O’Shea spot-kick but failed to breach a
stubborn Galway back four. At the of completion
of Group7 NEC and Galway progressed to the Kennedy
Cup quarter finals while West Cork had to be content
with a place in the Kennedy Trophy competition.
HAPPY ENDING
West Waterford / East Cork were the opposition
in the quarter finals the 11th of June and the
WW/EC took an early 2-0 lead until West Cork fought
back with a cracking second half performance.
Conor O’Neill and Ian Falvey netted to take
the game to penalties only for the WW/EC to snatch
a 4-3 shootout victory. Day 4 of the competition
on Thursday the 12th proved to be the most memorable
for West Cork. Back to back victories against
the Carlow and North Tipperary Schoolboy Leagues
meant a 29thoverall finish for the WCSL. Kevin
Davis struck the only goal in a 1-0 victory over
Carlow in the morning game. Conor O’Driscoll
inspired West Cork to a 4-2 win over North Tipp
with a sublime hat trick and Kevin Davis completed
the scoring to make it two wins out of two on
the final day of the tournament.
The record books will show 5 games played 2 wins,
1 draw (lost on pens) and 2 losses for the West
Cork side who still managed to play some very
attractive football throughout the week. Coach
Martin Henwood: “We were more than a match
for any team when it came to playing football
but too often we were simply out-muscled by more
physical opponents. We were not capable of competing
physically but showed our undoubted class when
we passed the ball quickly and accurately”.
The Skibbereen coach added, “The week proved
to be an enjoyable one for all the lads with two
welcome victories on the final day. We played
some teams off the park but got no reward for
our efforts which was disappointing. Nerves showed
in our opening two games until we finally settled
into the tournament and displayed out true potential”.
2008 SFAI UMBRO Kennedy Cup Results:
Monday 9th June
Group 7
West Cork 1 NEC 1
Tuesday 10th June
Group 7
West Cork 0 Longford 2
Galway 2 West Cork 1
Wednesday 11th June
Kennedy Trophy Quarter Final
WWEC 2 West Cork 2 (WWEC won 4-3 on penalties)
Thursday 12th June
Kennedy Trophy Play-Offs
West Cork 1 Carlow 0
West Cork 4 North Tipperary 2.
West
Cork squad for 2008 SFAI UMBRO Kennedy Cup:
Liam Cahalane, Alfie Hyland (Drinagh Rangers),
Martin Scally, Ian Falvey (Clonakilty AFC), Daniel
Nyhan (Lyre Rovers), Conor O’Neill, Niall
Kelleher (Riverside Athletic), Tadgh O’Mahony,
Bosko Minihane (Ballydehob), Gavin O’Shea
, Stephen Casey, Ciaran McElhinney (Bay Rovers),
Conor O’Driscoll , Adam Collins (Bunratty
United), Stephen O’Driscoll (Togher Celtic),
Brendan O’Dwyer, Kevin Davis, Daniel Rowell,
Brian Leonard and Sean Deasy (Skibbereen).
Mentors:
Martin Henwood, Conor Uhl and Paddy McCarthy.
Sponsors:
UMBRO, SuperValu and Dolphin Transport Skibbereen. |