Beara ladies feel re-grading to junior football level for 2022 will get club back on track

BEARA ladies’ adult football team will apply to the county board to be re-graded to junior for 2022, insists the board’s secretary Mary Power.

The Beara team has pulled out of this year’s county intermediate championship but there is a strong desire in the division to see its adult team back on the pitch next season, but at junior level.

Beara will look to re-grade to junior for 2022, as Power explains.

‘Beara Ladies are finding it extremely difficult to get commitment from players – we should have applied to re-grade for this year but missed our opportunity due to Covid and not being sure if football would even go ahead this year,’ Power explained.

‘The girls have not won a match in years which is extremely disheartening and we are way out of our league at intermediate level. This is partly due to the fact that in previous years we were not allowed re-grade as we had three county players, even though their availability to their club was extremely limited.’

The Beara ladies are already planning for next season and have started a recruitment drive for what the club hopes will be a county junior campaign.

At underage level the club is going well and the key now is to bridge that gap from underage to adult football – and that’s why operating at junior level is so important. Beara feels playing at junior will allow the club find its feet again and build momentum at the grade they feel they are best suited for.

‘Currently, Beara Ladies have very strong underage numbers. Our plan, going forward as a club, is to keep these girls interested and try to encourage them to stay on and play well into their late teens,’ Power said.

‘We would also hope to encourage those who have reached 18 to stay on and also try to get some of our older players to return. We have already started by asking ladies who played previously to return to Beara Ladies and have started a recruitment drive.

‘We feel that if we are allowed to re-grade to junior then the interest in competing fairly and at a level that will best suit our ability should encourage numbers, so all going well we hope to have a fresh start for 2022.’