The Cork Premier Junior Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the McCarthy Insurance Group Cork Premier Junior Football Championship and abbreviated to the Cork PJFC) is an annual

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

competition organised by the Cork County Board of the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

and contested by the top-ranking junior clubs in the

county of Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are Mallow, Macroom, Mid ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is the fifth tier overall in the entire Cork football championship system. The Cork Premier Junior Championship was introduced in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

following a restructuring of the various intermediate and junior championships. In its current format, the Cork Premier Junior Championship begins in early autumn. The 12 participating club teams are divided into three groups of four teams and play each other in a round-robin system. The three group winners and the three runners-up proceed to the knockout phase that culminates with the final match at

Páirc Uí Chaoimh Páirc Uí Chaoimh ( ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Cork, Ireland. Often referred to simply as "The Park", it is the home of Cork GAA and is located in Ballintemple, near the site of the original Cork Athletic Grounds. In February 2024, follo ...

. The winner of the Cork Premier Junior Championship qualifies for the subsequent Munster Club Championship. Kilmurry are the title holders after defeating

Canovee Canovee () is a rural region, with a village nucleus, in the Lee valley in County Cork, Ireland. The toponym 'Canovee' is synonymous with the official version 'Cannaway' (as in the civil parish of Cannaway), and the electoral division of Cann ...

by 0-10 to 1-06 in the 2024 final.

History

A restructuring process of the entire Cork football championship system had been underway since voted on by Cork County Board delegates in March 2019. In February 2022, the County Board took a further vote on the future of the club junior and intermediate championships. Delegates voted in favour of creating the Premier Junior Championship, comprising teams formed by the bottom four teams in Intermediate A football in 2022 along with the eight Divisional JAFC winners from 2022.

Format

Group stage

The 12 teams are divided into three groups of four. Over the course of the group stage, each team plays once against the others in the group, resulting in each team being guaranteed at least three games. Two points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. The teams are ranked in the group stage table by points gained, then scoring difference and then their head-to-head record. The top two teams in each group qualify for the knockout stage.

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals: Two lone quarter-finals featuring the four lowest-placed qualifying teams from the group stage. Two teams qualify for the next round. Semi-finals: The two quarter-final winners and the top two highest-placed qualifying teams from the group stage contest this round. The two winners from these games advance to the final. Final: The two semi-final winners contest the final. The winning team are declared champions.

Promotion and relegation

At the end of the championship, the winning team is automatically promoted to the Cork Intermediate A Championship for the following season. The two worst-ranked teams from the group stage take part in a playoff, with the losing team being relegated to the

Cork Junior A Football Championship The Cork Junior A Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Bon Secours Cork Junior A Football Championship and abbreviated to the Cork JAFC) is an annual Gaelic football competition organised by the Cork GAA, Cork County Board ...

into their respective divisional championship.

Teams

2025 Teams

The 12 teams competing in the 2025 Cork Premier Junior Football Championship are:

Sponsorship

In keeping with all championships in the Cork football system, Bon Secours Hospital became the title sponsor of the Cork Premier Junior Championship in 2023. McCarthy Insurance Group became the new title sponsor in December 2023.

Qualification for subsequent competitions

The Cork Premier Junior Football Championship winners qualify for the subsequent

Munster Junior Club Football Championship The Munster Junior Club Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the AIB Munster GAA Football Junior Club Championship) is an annual Gaelic football competition organised by the Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association an ...

Trophy and medals

The Donal Hurley Cup is the current prize for winning the championship. It was donated in November 2022 to honour

Donal Hurley Donal Hurley (1936 – 21 January 2022) was an Irish Gaelic footballer, hurler and coach. At club level played with club sides Lees, Erin's Hope and St Finbarr's, and at inter-county level with the Cork senior football team. Playing career ...

who served as a St Finbarr's player, selector and administrator. Alan McCarthy of St Finbarr's was the first recipient of the cup when it was presented to him after the 2023 final. Traditionally, at

, the victory presentation takes place at a special rostrum in the main grandstand. The cup is decorated with ribbons in the colours of the winning team. During the game the cup actually has both teams' sets of ribbons attached and the runners-up ribbons are removed before the presentation. The winning captain accepts the cup on behalf of his team before giving a short speech. Individual members of the winning team then have an opportunity to come to the rostrum to lift the cup, which is held by the winning team until the following year's final. In accordance with

GAA Gaa may refer to: * Gaa language, a language of Nigeria * gaa, the ISO 639 code for the Ga language of Ghana GAA may stand for: Compounds * Glacial (water-free), acetic acid * Acid alpha-glucosidase, also known as glucosidase, alpha; acid, an e ...

rules, the County Board awards a set of gold medals to the championship winners. The medals depict a stylised version of the Cork GAA crest.

Roll of honour

By club

By Division

List of finals

References

{{Cork GAA 1 Junior Gaelic football county championships 2023 establishments in Ireland