16 brilliant Cork hurlers left in The Battle of the Bridge

YOU have voted and picked 16 gifted city hurlers to move into the next round of our Battle of the Bridge competition.

With your help, we’re looking to decide on the best hurler from either side of the River Lee from the last 50 years of action and already some big names have been eliminated from our original list of 32.

The Echo has pitched some of Cork’s finest hurling stars from the northside and southside of Cork city together for a series of fun head-to-head battles on EchoLive.ie over the next two months.

After the first round, 10 southside hurlers and six northsiders were left standing, six from Blackrock, four from Glen Rovers, three from St Finbarr's, two from Na Piarsaigh and one from Bishopstown. 

BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE ROUND 2 

Graham Callanan (Glen Rovers) v Wayne Sherlock (Blackrock); Monday, October 24.

Christy Coughlan (Na Piarsaigh) v Gerald McCarthy (St Finbarr's); Tuesday, October 25.

Denis Coughlan (Glen Rovers) v Dermot McCurtain (Blackrock); Wednesday, October 26.

Patrick Horgan (Glen Rovers) v Ray Cummins (Blackrock); Thursday, October 27.

Tomás Mulcahy (Glen Rovers) v Charlie McCarthy (St Finbarr's); Friday, October 28.

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín (Na Piarsaigh) v John Horgan (Blackrock); Saturday, October 29.

Johnny Crowley (Bishopstown) v Tom Cashman (Blackrock); Monday, October 31.

Alan Browne (Blackrock) v Jimmy Barry-Murphy (St Finbarr's); Tuesday, November 1.

The ultimate winner will be selected by voting online at echolive.ie 

How did we decide who was eligible? This is Cork we’re talking about, not just your run-of-the-mill county, so even shortening it to a list of 32 candidates was a challenge for The Echo crew. We gave John Horgan (northside) and Denis Hurley (southside) the last word on the 16 hurlers picked from each side of the river.

Some big names fell short in the first round, including Ger Cunningham, Tony O'Sullivan, John Gardiner, Ronan Curran and Fergal Ryan.

Paddy Barry, Shane O'Neill, Pat Moylan, Barry Egan, John Fitzgibbon, Pat Horgan, Seanie McGrath, Paul O'Connor, Martin O'Doherty, Jim Cashman and Setanta Ó hAilpín were also knocked out.

To be chosen for The Battle Of The Bridge participants had to have hurled post-1972 and to have come through the underage structures of their sport in Cork.

We will keep the pairings ‘northside v southside’ as far as possible from here on, until we're left with your selection as city hurler of the last 50 years.

The timing couldn't be better for our competition, with St Finbarr's landing their first top hurling trophy on Leeside since 1993 after a terrific display against Blackrock in last Sunday's rain-soaked decider at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.