Youghal finally making ground after a lost generation

The Youghal veterans that won Munster 11 years ago are still going strong, but who came after them?

2014: Bill Cooper, Cork, in action against Wayne McNamara, Limerick. Pic: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE

IN the moments after their greatest success, Brendan Ring summed up the resilience that made Youghal the Munster intermediate champions of 2013.

“You know we didn’t have the best of starts to the year,” he said. “We were beaten in the first round of the championship but we rallied. You can see that here today how we got here.”

Little did he, or anyone else, think that Youghal’s winless run in the first round would continue into another decade.

When the Seasiders defeated Cloughduv three weeks ago to jump-start their intermediate A campaign, it was their first opening-day victory since 2012. That’s a lot of momentum-crushing first days out.

It didn’t matter much in 2013. But in the years that followed, the club entered freefall. From 2016 to 2019, they didn’t win a single match. After a sole success over Courcey Rovers, the same story repeated from 2021 until the end of 2023.

They were relegated from senior in 2017 and premier intermediate in 2022. In 2021, they avoided the relegation play-off on scoring difference by a single point.

Entering the 2023 relegation final, their record over the previous eight years read: played 26, won 1, drew 1, lost 24. They emerged from a nine-goal battle with Douglas’s second team to escape the junior trapdoor.

Bill Cooper spoke about the potential for that victory to be “a catalyst for us to really make an impression”. In 2024, they have kept Cooper’s word. The most remarkable element of this team is their age profile. Conor Spillane was centre-back in 2012/13. This year is his first as manager. It’s also his first year back playing.

“Of the team that started the last day, seven played in the 2013 final,” he explains. “Our captain was actually injured so we potentially would’ve had eight.

“I’m 37. Bill Cooper is the same age as me. Nigel (Roche) who started in midfield is 38. Jonty (Ormond), the full-back, is 40. Brett Moloney, 34. Ciarán O’Mahony, the captain, he’s 34. James O’Mahony, 34.

“So we’ve a lot of lads 33 plus and four of the six backs are under 21. Tthere’s a lost generation in the middle. We’ve probably three on the panel between 24 and 30.

“Now, we’ve a really good minor team coming, but they can’t play with us this year. The plan is to maintain intermediate status and hopefully give these lads something to come into next year and a bit of positivity around the place as well.”

Jayden Casey, Oisín Walsh, and Brian Lynch were Cork minors last year. Casey and James Murray were on the U20 panel this year. Despite not representing Cork, there’s a late bloomer, Fionn Hill, who they reckon could prove the best of them.

The older generation have kept showing up and will make them earn every jersey. For Spillane, making up the numbers in training lured him out of retirement.

“It’s been a difficult year. Numbers-wise, it’s been hard. We’ve gone out with eight, nine, 10 training for long periods of the year so it has been a grind. Now, we’d 26 there tonight so it’s finally coming together, but it’s driven by the older lads.

“They absolutely love it. It’s their life. This is what they live for. They’ve kept the whole thing going.

“I hadn’t played in a few years, with injuries and everything else, and it was just that these lads came to myself and Ken (Bulman) in December and asked if we would get involved. There was no one really wanted them after last year’s management stepped aside.

“Then I was there in the middle doing a bit of training and that’s what led to me getting back playing again.

“I do a bit of talking on the Thursday night but the day of the game, once I put on my gear, I’m a player. That’s it.

“It’s in the hands of the lads (Bulman, Stephen Twomey, and Fergal Keenaghan) after that. I’ve enough problems not to be trying to give speeches and everything else.”

There were no hard feelings when they whipped him off with a couple of minutes to go last weekend: “My body is held together with tape and I think the tape fell off at that stage!”

It’s Mayfield next today, albeit with top-scorer Devon O’Donoghue unavailable. Mission number one is to concrete their status. If they win, they could reach knockout hurling again. But history doesn’t permit them any false illusions.

“If we can keep everything ticking over and keep our intermediate status, you’d hope in five or 10 years that there’ll be enough coming through that we can start pushing up the grades.”