The East Cork U17 team recently won the Celtic Cup All-Ireland title after defeating Dublin side 2-16 5 to 1-11 in the final at Birr, Offaly.

The Celtic Cup is a 32-county competition. The traditional hurling counties have to play it without players that play minor. The remaining counties play with their full sides.

Add in the fact that Cork plays with four regional teams, against full county sides and it gives you some idea of just how difficult it is for a Rebel team to win.

For this achievement, the East Cork team are being honoured as the June winners of the Rebel Óg monthly awards.

The competition has been hugely beneficial to Cork sides with so many players going on to win U20 All-Ireland titles in the past few years that never made county minor teams and developed through the Celtic Cup panels. One such example is Sam Quirke, Midleton, who has two All-Ireland U20 medals and is a Cork senior panelist now.

East Cork were in a group with Kilkenny and Wexford, and they lost out narrowly in both games. But this did not matter as every team qualifies for the knockout stages.

In the knockout stages, they drew Limerick in the quarter-final away in Limerick. After a tough first half and seven points behind at the break things weren’t looking good. East Cork stormed into the game and ran out winners by 2-18 to 1-16.

Up next they face fellow Rebel outfit, North Cork, in the semi-final. In a good tough game at Kilworth the East Cork only pulled away late on and ran out worthy winners on the day.

The final was against Dublin, who only entered one team into the competition and they knew it was going to be a difficult task to get the better of them.

In a tough physical battle, the East Cork side started to find scores a little easier than their opponents in perfect conditions at Birr and won by 2-16 to 1-11.

Michael O’Mahony, chairman of Rebel Óg congratulated East Cork on their win and said it was great to see Cork enter four teams in the competition and even better to see one of them emerge as winners.

Panel: Scott Molloy – Cobh (captain), Daniel Nolan – Carrigtwohill, Ronan O’Brien – Youghal, Jack Barrett – Cobh, Ronan Lowney – Fr O’Neill’s, Richie Harney – Kiltha Óg, Evan O’Driscoll – St Catherines, Matthew Barrett – Carrigtwohill, Eoghan Frazer – Midleton, Tadhg O’Donoghue Brosnan – Fr O’Neill’s, Samuel O’Driscoll – Aghada, Colin Murphy – Kiltha Óg, Thomas Condon – Aghada, Kane Walsh – Lisgoold, Daniel Garde – Midleton, Marty Desmond – Youghal, Rob Deane – Aghada, Shane O’Donoghue – St Colman’s, Fionn Kelly – Midleton, Darragh Egan – Midleton, James Hurley – Aghada, Steve Dennis – Cobh, Fionn Hill – Youghal, Luca Brodkorb – Midleton.

Management: Alan Geary – Youghal, Derek Barrett – Cobh, Ger Sheehan – Aghada, Pat O’Brien – Youghal.