New management team wants to get Beara football up and running

THE winds of change continue to sweep through Beara football with the division’s new senior football management team hoping their positivity will spark an upturn in fortunes.

A three-man management team of Michael Joe O’Sullivan (Adrigole), Michael O’Shea (Garnish) and Peter Murphy (Glengarriff) has taken charge of the Beara footballers ahead of their Cork SFC opener against Avondhu in Macroom on Sunday, March 18th.

It’s a short window to prepare the Beara footballers for the championship – but Peter Murphy is confident that the division will make the most of its fresh start.

After the new Beara board was put in place last month, new chairman Jim Hanley approached Murphy to gauge his interest in getting involved with the division’s footballers – and it was a project that interested the Glengarriff man.

‘We want to get Beara football up and running,’ Murphy said. 

‘I always enjoyed playing for Beara and hopefully footballers in the division will feel the same now. 

‘The last couple of years, it’s as low as it’s been for a while but it’s time to get it back up and running. 

‘There’s a new Beara board, a new committee, a new management team and it’s a fresh start for everyone involved. That means there are new ideas and new people working together to get Beara football moving again.’

Murphy, O’Sullivan and O’Shea are in positive mood ahead of the championship throw-in, and they want that positivity to spread throughout the division. 

‘If the management work hard, the players will see that and will row in behind it,’ Murphy said. 

‘The game against Avondhu is on top of us. We have a small window to get it right and we’re trying to organise as much as we can in this limited time – contact players and clubs, get the backing of players and clubs and get some goodwill too towards this.

‘Interest from players is key and having the clubs pushing their players to play for Beara is also important.’ 

Murphy admits Beara football is at a low ebb with no wins in the last two SFC campaigns – but the new management team will pull out all the stops over the next two weeks to ensure the team is in the best position to pull off a shock against Avondhu.

‘There is a lot of organising when you are involved in a division and when you consider the state of Beara football at the moment, we are trying to encourage people to get involved – and the response has been positive,’ he said.

‘Beara have some very talented footballers and it is about harnessing that talent, organising it and getting the best out of all of the players for the good of Beara.’

Murphy, who was involved with Bantry Blues last season, won two county U21 titles with Beara and he is keen to point the senior footballers in the right direction this year.

It’s a new start for the Beara footballers who were due to get together for the first time on Wednesday night.