Rebel Óg Awards: O’Sullivan the inspiration for Urhan

In a word-association test, ‘Beara’ would surely be followed by ‘football’. It’s a way of life that far west and as the Urhan U14s showed in 2013, it looks like things will continue that way into the future.

Unlucky to lose to a good Inniscarra side in the county AFC final, they regrouped to defeat Bandon in the West section league decider. Greatly helping them in their pursuit was the presence on the sideline of former Cork defender and current selector Ciarán O’Sullivan, and he believes that having a good backroom team is a big factor in nurturing young players.

“We were brought up with football full-stop, really,” he said at the Rochestown Hotel, main event sponsors, for the Rebel Óg awards.

“We don’t have hurling in the club and while fellas can go and play soccer or hurling, by all means, there’s nothing stopping them, but we’re born into football.

“I remember we had a man training us at U12, John Joe McCarthy, and he worked really hard with us, which is a huge bonus. You can have all the good players in the world but you need a bit of coaching too. We were lucky that we had the balance from day one.”

A larger-than-usual playing pool was also a benefit.

“There’s a group of around 20 or 22 who came along together,” O’Sullivan said.

“It was a big squad and it was easy to train them, we also had no problem in fulfilling fixtures because we always had numbers, which is a huge advantage in small areas.

“The parents played a huge part too in terms of bringing players to matches, obviously we’re well away from a lot of places so we needed that help and we got it all the time. All of that has built up to the success we’re having at the moment.”

At the same time, O’Sullivan is keen to point out that success can never fully be preordained. Drawing upon the confidence which came from wins helped them to go further.

“We knew we had a nice bunch of players who were committed,” he said, “but you never know for certain.

“There was a nucleus of very good players, then it was a case of getting a pattern of play going and getting the players working together.

“It worked for us and as the year went on we could see that games were going our way. Some were won relatively easy, some went down to the wire and they stood to us, really.”

One of the stars of the side, Luke O’Sullivan, feels the side were inspired by the presence of the club’s greatest player in Ciarán and he helped to instil a strong spirit.

“We weren’t the greatest when we were younger,” he said, “but Ciarán became manager when we were U10 and we won our first-ever final and that really helped us.

“We work hard in training and then if you’re doing things right there it’s easier to do it in a match. We all work for each other and that shows through.”

The Rebel Óg monthly awards ceremony acknowledges the contribution of clubs and schools in nurturing and developing Gaelic Games across the county. The Awards event honours the 12 monthly winners recognising their endeavour and achievements.

The Awards are jointly sponsored by the Irish Examiner, Red FM, Rochestown Park Hotel and Cummins Sports.

To make your nomination visit: www.rebelog.ie/sportsawards