Premier SHC: Newtownshandrum manager O'Mahony knows A-game is needed against Sarsfields

Of the six Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC games taking place this weekend, just one is between two teams who won their opening matches.

Even so, that clash, between county champions Sarsfields and Newtownshandrum, has the Riverstown side as strong favourites to make it from two.

Newtown couldn’t make it out a group comprising Sars, St Finbarr’s and Kanturk last year but reached the semi-finals in 2022, losing out to eventual champions the Barrs. Their manager Gerdy O’Mahony is happy to go under the radar but knows that a big display will be needed in Mourneabbey tomorrow (4pm).

“When you haven’t won a county since 2009, you wouldn’t be in the top five or six in the betting,” he says.

“We don’t take much notice, to be honest. It probably suits us away fine, we’ll just go away and try to do the best that we can.

“Sars are the county champions – as a man said to me the other night, they’re a slick outfit.

“They’re the county champions, they’ve won the last two league titles and they’re probably looking at bigger and better things.

“You have to bring your A-game to try to match them – if you don’t do that, you ain’t going to be successful against them.

“Things have to go right for us. We’re under no illusions and we know that it’s a massive task.

“We just have to go out and give a performance – we feel that if we do that, we’ll put up a good show and be in with a shout. We’ll take that at this moment in time.”

Given that they were again paired with Sars, and with Douglas to come, a lot was riding on Newtown’s opener against Bishopstown but they got off to a great start, winning by 5-13 to 0-8.

“The first game – and you probably hear everybody involved in teams say it – is crucial,” he says.

“It takes some pressure off if you win, whereas if you don’t get a result you’re going in facing the county champions in round two. If that didn’t go in your favour, you’re looking at a must-win last game to avoid the relegation.

“Every year, we’d always try to get the two points because these group stages are a cut-throat business and we have them on the board now and we’re happy with that, especially with the challenge that’s coming in next.”

To that end, the frequency with which they found the net is encouraging.

“Any day you get goals – and it isn’t every day you go out and get five – you’ll take them,” O’Mahony says.

“I said after the Bishopstown game that we’d be encouraging lads to go for goals if the opportunity arises.

“You could see how the Cork public were reacting this year when the team were going for goals, it put a bit of excitement on it. Some days, it mightn’t go for you and don’t score – and you might be conceding goals – but if you do get the ball in the opposition danger-zone, you want to try to raise a green flag.”

Injury-wise, Newtown are likely to be without Conor Twomey but otherwise O’Mahony hopes to have a full deck.

“We got a few injuries against Bishopstown,” he says.

“Conor Twomey is unlikely to make it and Tim O’Mahony had a bad facial injury but he should be okay.

“Otherwise, it’s the same crew. There’s a good blend of youth and experience there – you have Jamie Coughlan, Cathal Naughton, Michael Thompson and these lads, then you come down to the middle group, Tim’s group and Cormac O’Brien, then you have younger lads coming off the minor panels.

“We’re happy with the mix.”