THE West Cork Academy’s participation in 2025 Super Cup Northern Ireland is expected to provide invaluable experience to the players who represented their region.
The Super Cup NI is one of the most prestigious and well-known schoolboys’ soccer tournaments in the world. As a result, competing clubs and representative schoolboys leagues always field their strongest teams.
The West Cork Academy’s participation over the past two summers underlines the academy’s growing reputation.
This year, West Cork Academy took on the might of Manchester United and Glasgow giants Rangers, as part of the U16 Premier (top-ranked) grade.
A high-profile opening day clash with Manchester United saw West Cork face off against Wayne Rooney’s son and rising star Kai, as well as former United and English international Michael Carrick’s son Jacey.
Add to that, testing encounters against Tyrone, Armagh and Fermanagh’s top prospects, and the West Cork’s players gained invaluable experience in their final academy appearances.
Head coach David Hall and his management team couldn’t have been prouder of their squad, who produced consistent performances against elite opposition.
‘It was a tough tournament but that’s why we entered,’ Hall told The Southern Star.
‘The Super Cup NI represents the passing out of the West Cork Academy for our U16s. It is widely known as the best, one of the top five tournaments in the world.
‘We are very privileged to have been invited to play and this year, as we did last year, West Cork definitely made an impact.
‘Results were always going to be very difficult to get in this tournament, considering the group of death that we were essentially put in alongside Manchester United, Rangers and Tyrone.
‘Despite the losses, everybody highlighted that it was a great experience to play those teams and in front of such big crowds. Those experiences will live long in all the players' memories.
‘Our game-plan and our preparation went very well. We drafted in West Cork players from the Cork Schoolboys League and Cork Youths League, who were absolutely fantastic additions.
‘Three of our lads, Charlie Moore, Christos Delis and Ethan O’Donovan, who graduated from our academy and signed for League of Ireland club Cobh Ramblers, came back in and were invaluable in terms of our overall squad’s make-up.
‘The same is true of all our other players who each made significant impacts throughout the week.’
Having lost to Manchester United and Tyrone, West Cork put in a magnificent effort against a highly-rated Rangers team. One-nil down heading into the closing stages, despite Rangers goalkeeper being the busiest player on the pitch, a last-minute breakaway goal put an unfair gloss on the final 2-0 scoreline.
Following a testing group phase, the West Cork Academy were down to their bare bones over the final two days of the tournament.
‘This tournament does take its toll in terms of five games in five days,’ Hall admitted.
‘We had a full medical team operating around the clock. We did start to creak at the seams a small bit in terms of injuries. We lost Luke Holland and Liam Ryan to injury in the Rangers game. Things just escalated from there in terms of further injuries over the final two days.’
Armagh were West Cork’s opponents in the Super Cup NI Bowl semi-finals. Unfortunately, the rural academy lost Sean Platt to yet another injury inside the opening ten minutes. Alex Brammoulle’s effort meant a close game was level, 1-1, before Armagh netted a winner three minutes into injury-time.
That meant a Super Cup NI Bowl play-off against Fermanagh on the final day of the tournament. Alas, Eoin McCarthy’s goal wasn’t enough to prevent a 2-1 West Cork loss in a game the Fermanagh goalkeeper was awarded man of the match for producing numerous top-class saves.
‘This was the highest level of football the vast majority of our players will play,’ Hall added.
‘One of our player’s parents asked me how I measure success in all that I do at the West Cork Academy? The success of these boys won’t be measured in Northern Ireland, on the pitch or over the last four years or even the next four years. Hopefully, maybe ten or 15 years from now, I’ll bump into a Ronan Hayes or a Tom Whooley and we’ll be able to talk about the days we played Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Valencia. That's your measure of success.’
West Cork Academy U16 schoolboys: Rory Twohig, Oisin McCarthy, Oscar Verdinshott, Matthew Buttimer, Sean Platt, Gearoid O’Keefe, Christos Delis, Charlie Moore, Tom Whooley, Ethan O’Donovan, Alex Bramoulle, Luke Holland, Kalan Murphy, Padraig O’Sullivan, Milo Kinsella, Liam Ryan, Daire Hurley, Eoin McCarthy. Management Team: David Hall, DJ Curtin, Rory Curtin, Tadgh Curtin, Don Hurley.
