U20 hurlers can give Cork fans a boost by beating Offaly

CORK face Offaly in Semple Stadium on Sunday in what will be a fifth All-Ireland final in the U20/U21 grades in six years for the Rebel County, which is some achievement considering where Cork hurling was at the start of that run.

At the beginning of 2018 Cork had not been in a final at this grade since their 1998 All-Ireland triumph over Galway, which featured current manager Ben O’Connor, with the 4-21 to 2-18 defeat in a thriller of a semi-final with Galway in 2007 being the closest they had gotten in the interim.

That side contained the likes of Patrick Horgan, Pa Cronin, Colm O’Neill, Eoin Cadogan, Shane O’Neill and Cathal Naughton.

None of those players got to play in an U21 final for Cork, whereas there are now dozens around the county still in their early to mid-twenties that can say that they have. That fact alone is a seriously positive development.

Cork did lose the first two of those finals to Liam Cahill’s Tipperary sides, with the first of those being particularly painful, but the two subsequent victories over Dublin and Galway were huge, with both acting as hefty weights being lifted from the burdened shoulders of Cork hurling.

The Cork team can now just go in against the Faithful County fully focused on the win, without the weight of history on their backs. The teams of 2020 and 2021 did all the heavy lifting.

The game was supposed to be played last Saturday, but thanks to Offaly’s involvement in the Joe McDonagh Cup the game was pushed back a week, which actually help Cork’s preparations.

Eoin Downey started in the 4-19 to 2-14 win over Galway two years ago, and thankfully he gets a chance to line out in this final now thanks to the switch.

If it had remained at last weekend he would have been involved with the seniors against Limerick and therefore ineligible due to the controversial rule that prevents a player from playing at U20 and senior level for his county within seven days.

Michael Mullins and Ben Cunningham also both contributed in that 2021 win off the bench. Throw in the fact that a lot of the team won All-Ireland honours at minor level in 2021 and that is a lot of All-Ireland experience already in this Cork side.

TOWERING

Having Downey available gives Cork manager Ben O’Connor options from a defensive set-up point of view.

He could just stick the Glen Rovers man in at centre-back, flanked by Ballincollig’s James Dwyer and St Finbarr’s Ben O’Connor, in what would be an extremely big and physical half-back line.

The other option, which has some appeal, is to put Downey on Offaly’s ridiculously talented stick man Adam Screeney.

The Kilcormac-Killoughey youngster slotted 1-12 of Offaly’s 1-21 total against Wexford in the Leinster final in Carlow, so limit him and, in theory, you limit Offaly.

While Downey, Mullins and Cunningham all played in Cork’s U20 All-Ireland triumph over Galway two years ago, loads of other young Cork men get to experience what it feels like to represent Cork in a major national final, which can only be a positive for Cork hurling.

Assuming the above three play, and Cork make five substitutions on Sunday, that would mean that 76 different hurlers lined out in the blood and bandages in the U20/U21 All-Ireland finals from 2018 to 2023.

That is huge considering that the previous generation had zero experience of this.

Obviously, for a lot of that 76 the U20 grade is as far as it goes in terms of their inter-county career, while others might dip their toes into the senior grade but never quite get up to their necks in it.

For some, these final appearances will have been a stepping stone in long Cork senior careers, although it would certainly be preferable if they actually won titles, as opposed to just making final appearances.

A 14th All-Ireland win in the grade on Sunday for Cork will tip the win ratio in these finals into the positive, with three wins from five, and make it three wins in the past four years too.

That would mean there are a lot of young Cork lads walking around with Celtic Crosses in the back pocket, which you would hope could be upgraded to senior ones in a few years.