Premier SHC: Imokilly boss Denis Ring expects tough Avondhu challenge

In three of the four previous editions of the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC, Imokilly have been the side emerging from the divisions and colleges section.

While the East Cork side have not managed to repeat the marvellous three-in-a-row feat of 2017-19, they have remained the team to beat among the combination sides. However, past success is never a guarantee a future performance and they will go into Sunday’s semi-final against Avondhu in Fermoy (7.15pm) well aware of the jeopardy involved.

Muskerry are in the last four are coming through the unseeded phase (compacted due to withdrawals) whereas Imokilly, Avondhu and UCC were given byes.

That can have its advantages and disadvantages, as Imokilly manager Denis Ring knows.

“There’s no second chance in it and no back door,” he says.

“It is what it is, we’re used to it over the last couple of years.

“We had a recovery session on Tuesday night to see how everybody was after the weekend as they were all playing.

“We’ve had training sessions, but it’s been challenging enough, to be honest.

“We had two recent games, against Mount Sion and Ballygunner, which were two good matches for us.” Imokilly are also lucky in that they have a good deal of experience and familiarity built up over the past decade. To that end, it’s important that players are not pulled in too many directions.

“From a player point of view, the league in Cork now is a very good league and players are getting an awful lot of games, which is great,” Ring says.

“In a way, it probably doesn’t necessitate us to play as many games then, as such, because it’s a case of seeing the lads playing.

“There’s no point overdoing it, playing games just for the sake of playing games.

“A dual club is out every weekend during the spring and you don’t want to be adding to that unnecessarily.

“ It’s a case of juggling to make sure that you’re keeping in touch but that, at the same time, you’re not adding to their workload.

“This year has been particularly challenging because, at the start of the year, pitches were a problem and some matches went back a bit.

“Some dual clubs ended up playing league games twice a week and so on. Overall, the split-season is good for players because they know exactly where they are.

“There’s a calendar there and it’s easier to follow and things are better from a family perspective. I think it’s well-received by players.” Imokilly have beaten Avondhu in the final of this section in each of the past two years – a 15-point gap in 2022 was trimmed down to five in 2023 and Ring expects a tough challenge if they are to make the decider.

“Avondhu are very well-organised and they have a bit of tradition as well,” he says.

“They beat Imokilly before, in the county final, and last year there was very little in it.

“It’ll be the same this year, I’m sure. There’ll be nothing in it.

“Over the weekend, some fellas played particularly well and you have to go on that as well.

“For single-code fellas, they have a couple of weeks until their next round – I know the double-code fellas will be going again soon enough – we’ll see how they are but a couple of fellas did impress us.

“Some young fellas have been going quite well and you’re looking at maybe adding them to the set-up. The other side of it is that you don’t have the benefit of a round-robin where you can experiment and trial things.

“We know we’ll have to hit the ground running against Avondhu.

“We were lucky enough to beat them last year, it was very close, they’re organised and I’d know a lot of their guys particularly well.

“Most of them have played with Cork at some level and that’s the benefit of the development squads system within Cork as well, guys like that are getting a lot of exposure.

“They’d be known – there’s nobody playing for Avondhu that hasn’t a big bank of experience behind them, either with development squads or Cork minor or U20 teams or college teams.

“Mallow have gone down as well so Avondhu probably have more players available to them this year.

“At the end of the day, in Imokilly, you have Sarsfields, Midleton, Erin’s Own, Cloyne, Carrigtwohill, Castelylons, Killeagh and Fr O’Neills who are premier senior or senior A – I don’t think any other division has that. There’s a lot of levelling-out going on.

“We’re under no illusions that it’ll be really tough but we’re looking forward to it.”