MTU enter the lion's den tonight to face in-form DCU in Sigerson Cup quarter-final

CORK’S many Sigerson Cup players continue their hectic schedule with two more games in the next 24 hours, involving MTU Cork travelling to Dublin to play DCU this evening at 7pm with UCC following tomorrow to face St Mary’s, Belfast, in Abbottstown at the same time.

It’s a very demanding period as the students attempt to reach the semi-finals of third-level’s most prestigious football championship while also juggling the high-pressure zone of inter-county football and the league’s importance in terms of the summer’s All-Ireland.

These will be the fourth games for both MTU and UCC on top of the four games played by Cork, three in the McGrath Cup and the opening league defeat by Meath at the weekend.

The pair supplied two starters apiece in the 0-19 to 3-14 loss, all in defence, with MTU’s Rory Maguire (Castlehaven) and Sean Meehan (Kiskeam) in the half-back line and UCC’s Maurice Shanley (Clonakilty) and Daniel O’Mahony (Knocknagree) behind them in the full-back line.

Both also had players sprung from the bench, Tommy Walsh (Kanturk) ensuring Cork had five Sigerson defenders at one stage while UCC’s Cathail O’Mahony (Mitchelstown) was the lone forward to make an appearance on his seasonal debut with the county.

Three more players included in the 26-strong match-day panel brought the Sigerson connection to nine and there are more, too.

UCC midfielder Shane Merritt (Mallow) and attacker Mark Cronin (Nemo Rangers) were unused substitutes as was Conor Corbett (Clyda Rovers), who’ll be up top for DCU facing familiar opponents, while MTU’s Paul Ring (Aghabullogue) and UCC’s Fionn Herlihy (Dohenys) are also involved with Cork.

Cork manager John Cleary admitted it was a big challenge for all concerned. “We knew that from the start of the season that that could happen,” he said.

“They want to play with their colleges and ultimately, we’re not going to stand in their way of doing that.

“You try to manage both but it’s not easy when you’ve so many of them. We’ve 13 or 14 involved with the various colleges and it’s trying to mix and match them and trying to manage them.” 

By full-time tomorrow the dual players will have been involved in eight games in 28 days though, of course, they’ve not started all of them. Meath manager Colm O’Rourke was less impacted with just five players involved.

“That’s going to be over in the next couple of weeks,” Cleary added, “so after that we’ll have everyone within our camp all the time, but it is difficult at this time of year.” 

MTU face the greater task against a crack DCU outfit, which has already posted 7-29 in big wins over Queens and ATU Donegal.

Still, the Bishopstown college bounced back from the opening round loss to UCD to register victories over league winners Maynooth University and ATU Sligo last week to keep their Sigerson dream alive, when Ryan O’Donovan (Barryroe) again underlined his importance to the cause with half-a-dozen points to increase his tally to an impressive 0-26.

Kilshannig’s Eanna O’Connor was among the goal scorers as were Dylan and David O’Connor though it’s set to be a lot more difficult in a game to be refereed by Kildare’s Brendan Cawley, the man in the middle for the Cork-Meath encounter.

There’s a second quarter-final tonight between the holders University of Galway and UL which is a repeat of last year’s decider. Darragh Cashman (Millstreet), Mark Lenahan (Buttevant) and Sean McDonell (Mallow) play with UL.

UCC return to the scene of last week’s marathon against Queens, who produced a storming fight-back to force extra-time initially and then penalties before the Cork students prevailed 7-6 after Eire Og keeper Dylan Foley emerged as the hero.