Pictured at the Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Championships captain's call at Croke Park in Dublin are Brendan Conway of Our Lady's Secondary School, Belmullet, and Fintan Fenner of Scoil Phobail Bheara, Cork.
By John Harrington
Saturday’s Masita Post Primary schools Br. Edmund Ignatious Rice Cup (SF ‘D’) Final will be a battle of the peninsulas with Our Lady’s College Belmullet facing off against Beara Community School.
From two rugged extremes of the country and separated by a six hour drive, they’ll split the difference and play one another in the St. Joseph’s Doora Barefield club grounds in Clare.
For most of the Beara players it represents another opportunity to win a major piece of silverware this season.
Not only have they won a Munster title with the school, the vast majority of them were also part of the Beara divisional team that won the Cork U-18 championship in December.
With that sort of quality in their ranks, there were always high hopes in the school they could challenge for major honours this year.
"We kind of knew this would the bunch to really go for it this year,” says Beara Community School coach, Cian O’Connell.
“We have a lot of sixth years this year and a lot of strong lads that will be moving on next year.
“This team have played together with the Beara divisional team and won a minor Division 1 Cork title this year. The bulk of this team would have been playing on that and they've all played together with Beara underage all the way up along.
“So they're a team of friends really. They're all playing together since U-12. They haven't lost a game with Beara or with the school for a long time. They actually don't know how to lose at this stage. They think they're invincible, which is a good thing.”
The Scoil Phobail Bhéara team that will contest Saturday's Br. Edmund Ignatius Rice Cup Final.
As for Belmullet, they have a rich tradition in this competition already, winning it outright in 2017 and 2014.
Mayo forward and 2021 All-Star, Ryan O’Donoghue, was captain of that 2017 winning team, and has sent the current group of players a motivational video to get them in the right frame of mind for Saturday’s Final.
Unlike Beara, there wasn’t the same level of expectation in Belmullet at the outset of the campaign that they’d be in the shake-up for silverware this year.
“We didn't, to be honest with you,” says team coach John Reilly. “In other years such as in 2017 we knew we had a good squad and thought we could get to a Connacht Final, but this year was very different.
“We played in a League competition at the beginning of the year and actually lost a couple of games and weren't going that well. But we knuckled down into a good bit of hard training over the holidays in December and January and it just took off from there.
“Week by week we started to improve and the lads got more confident and a couple of the younger lads just seemed to step up that bit more and thankfully it has gone well for us and we're in the Final now.
“They’re all football man and have been easy to train because they’re always so keen.”
The Our Lady's Secondary School, Belmullet team that will contest the Br. Edmund Ignatius Rice Cup Final on Saturday.
Both schools are based in football-mad parts of the country, so even though the Clare venue is a considerable drive whether you’re coming from the Beara or Erris peninsula, a large, vocal crowd is expected.
“There's a massive tradition of football with the Beara clubs,” says O’Connell. “They don't have hurling, it's football or nothing. They're very proud about their football and rightly so because they produce some serious players.
“The clubs in Beara, in fairness to them, are massively supportive of the school. Our supporters would travel anywhere. It was four and a half hours up to Carlow the last day and the place was full of Beara people. They'll be there for the Final too.
“You know going into a Final you’ll be playing a quality team but we're in as good a place as we can be going into it.”
Belmullet have done their homework and know their Cork opponents will pose a serious challenge, but they’ve improved with every match this year and will hope that trend continues.
“We've heard that Beara have had a lot of success at underage level in recent times,” says Reilly. “I know that the school has won Munster titles at senior level in the last couple of years so, look, it'll be a huge challenge but we're really looking forward to it.
“You never really know in underage football either until the ball is thrown in. You hear things about teams and you might think you have a really strong team or whatever, but it's all on the day. Our lads are mad looking forward to it anyway.”
Saturday, March 12
Post Primary Schools Br. Edmund Ignatius Rice Cup (SF 'D') Final
Our Ladys College Belmullet v Beara Community School, St Joseph’s Doora Barefield, 2pm
Ref: Chris Maguire (Clare)
