Paudie Palmer picks the relegation candidates in Cork club hurling and football

CAN you imagine paying a visit to a team counsellor and mentioning that recently your day was taken up looking forward to the Cork County Board championship groupings due to issue that evening? 

To extrapolate a little further, if they hadn’t already reached for a biro to scribble a prescription for the local pharmacy, what if you mentioned you can hardly wait until the weekend of July 24 for the county championships to begin! Sad or not?

Prior to the new format, Cork championship draws were greeted with very little enthusiasm. 

For those of you who might be a tad knowledge deficient, there are nine championships involved, four in football and five in hurling, at the end of this year's competitions, there will be five in both. That junior re-grading is for another day. 

When the curtain is opened on the last weekend in July, you could argue it will mark the commencement of 28 championships. Yes, in all nine there are 28 groups of four, providing each team three competitive and meaningful games.

Clubs may not wish to admit it but for many when the groups were issued, the first thought was 'is there any crowd in our group, that we can definitely defeat and thus avoid relegation?' 

To fully appreciate this mindset I must mention that for many teams, there are about four objectives.  

A: Win at least one group match and that should allay relegation issues. 

B: Finish in the top two which will ensure qualification for the knockout stages. 

C: Win at least one match in the knockout series. 

D: End up as county champions. 

Of the 112 teams that will line up at the starters tape, 20 will not achieve objective A, 56 will qualify for the knockout stages and just nine will end up as county champions.  

We don't have space to offer wayward thoughts on all nine competitions! I will just mention a number. 

At the moment, the only championship that is out of sync, if you wish, is Intermediate A Football. It is made up of four groups of four but at the end of 2022, four clubs will be relegated to what will be a newly-created Premier Junior Football grade. 

As a matter of interest, the other eight teams for this new championship in 2023 will be the winners of the eight divisional Junior A championships. Hold on, make that seven as Urhan, who are the only Junior A team in the Beara division, are automatically promoted. 

Back to our IAFC can you imagine how competitive each group is going to be when the bottom team in each of the four groups will go down?  

The draws for the Premier Senior Football produced a group which many described as the group of death. Clonakilty, Castlehaven, Nemo and Newcestown. I would suggest, a group of life would be more apt.  

When news of that particular quartet hit the streets, a westerner was in contact wishing to add his tuppence worth. His view was that Newcestown wouldn’t qualify but that they would decide which teams would. 

Not wishing to lower the column’s popularity in the Carrigaline area but would it be wrong to suggest that the other three teams in their group, St Finbarr's, Éire Óg and Carbery Rangers, won’t have to worry about relegation?  

I am always interested in how promoted teams will fare. 

Kanturk, the new kids in Premier Senior Hurling are in a group with Midleton, Douglas and Newtownshandrum. To put it bluntly, their game against their northwestern neighbours will more than likely be a basement battle. 

In football, I think Mallow can be in the shake-up considering that their opponents are Douglas, Valley Rovers and Ballincollig. Any two clubs could emerge here.

At Senior A Hurling, Courcey Rovers ended up with Fr O’Neill's, Blarney and Killeagh. No, it will not be easy for them. 

In football, Newmarket performed two Houdini acts last year, firstly to get out of their group and secondly to win against Kanturk. With Ilen Rovers, Clyda and O’Donovan Rossa as companions, Houdini may have to be on permanent call, if the new entrants are to avoid a visit to last-chance saloon.  

On to the Premier Intermediate Championships, Castlemartyr will be in the company of Ballinhassig, Kilworth and Ballincollig and I would suggest that staying up will be a challenge.  However, I expect that Iveleary who are undefeated in championship football since October 26, 2019, will continue to impress. 

Their first game will be against neighbours Cill Na Martra. That should be some craic. 

The other two sides they'll face are Nemo's second team and St Vincent’s.  

On to both Intermediate A houses. Lisgoold who akin to Uibh Laoire have won successive championships should be hopeful of progressing from a group that also includes Aghada, Midleton and Blackrock. However, I would harbour fears for Boherbue, against Mitchelstown, runners-up for the past two years, Millstreet and Glanmire.  

PREMIER JUNIOR

Finally, our last port of call, for the moment is the very relieved newly christened Premier Junior Hurling. The members here spent the last two years in what could be described as a holding cell known as Lower Intermediate. 

The intention was to relegate all of them back to their divisions. Now they are full-card carrying members of the county championships proper, albeit with a new name. 

Ballygiblin are their newest members and I think they will make life difficult for their fellow companions Ballygarvan, Argideen Rangers and Dripsey.

Roll on the end of July!

Contact: paudie.palmer@hotmail.com Twitter: @paudiep