Premier SHC: Strong favourites Imokilly won't take Muskerry challenge lightly

Apart from 2020, when UCC emerged from the divisions and colleges section of the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC, Imokilly have been the team to reach the quarter-finals of the competition proper.

Since the Denis O’Riordan Cup was inaugurated for the winners of this section, the East Cork divisional side have had a stranglehold on the trophy and they will look to retain it when they face Muskerry at Páirc Uí Rinn on Sunday night (7pm).

Two years ago, Imokilly were 15-point winners against Avondhu in the final but the margin in 2023 was down to just five points. Three weeks ago, they took on the North Cork side at the semi-final stage, winning by 27 points, but manager Denis Ring is loath to read too much into that.

“We treated Avondhu with huge respect because they’ve put it up to us the last two years,” he said, “particularly last year, which was a very tight game.

“In fairness to Avondhu this year, things just didn’t happen for them. Our performance, I don’t know if you can read anything into it because Avondhu were depleted.

“We weren’t to know that going into it, but we just prepared as best we could and performed well in the circumstances.

“It’s very hard to read anything into the performance, then. Muskerry had a much more competitive and testing opener against UCC.”

Having come through the unseeded stage of the competition – which featured Carbery and Duhallow, while Carrigdhoun pulled out before it began – Muskerry are in what their manager Diarmuid Kirwan terms as “bonus territory”. However, Ring knows that the Mid-Cork side’s challenge cannot be taken lightly.

“A lot of them were playing over the weekend and I went to see them,” he said.

“I saw the Éire Óg-Ballincollig game and I saw the Cloughduv game. I’d know a lot of those guys and they performed very well and hurled very well.

“There’s a lot of cohesion in that team – they played in the earlier phase, prior to the UCC match, so this is their third championship game together.

“I thought they were impressive against the College – 3-18 was impressive scoring against good opposition.”

Last year, Imokilly beat Douglas in the quarter-finals and then went to extra time against Sarsfields in the semis before losing out to the concession of a late goal. In the bookmakers’ rankings, they are currently top of the rankings but dreams of adding another title to go with those of 1997, 1998, 2017, 2018 and 2019 are a while away yet.

“Obvious, the task is to try to reach the quarter-finals and that’s what everybody wants,” Ring said.

“You look at the task ahead but, I suppose, from our point of view, the one thing that we want is that we’re well-briefed on the opposition and you treat everybody with 100 percent respect.

“You go in with your eyes wide open. We got to see the UCC match and we’ve got to see them playing with their clubs.

“They’re all excellent hurlers and we certainly won’t under-estimate the challenge. Diarmuid Kirwan has done a fantastic job with them over the last few years – this isn’t just this year, it’s been a sustained effort over a longer period of time.

“Obviously, he has got buy-in and then he’s ably assisted with the likes of Johnny Dwyer from Ballincollig, who is very experienced as well.

“There’s continuity there and buy-in and we know that they’re going to be seriously up for it. We’ll have to be prepared and ready and give them the ultimate respect.”

To that end, Ring and Imokilly are boosted by the availability of some key players who missed the Avondhu match.

“Fellas who were missing for their clubs did play last weekend,” he said.

“Ciarán Joyce and Brian Lawton played for Castlemartyr and Séamie Harnedy played for St Ita’s. I was at those games but they seemed to get through them okay.”

It makes the task of picking the team harder, but Ring is fortunate, and grateful, to have options.

“The 15 best players don’t necessarily make the best team,” he said.

“The 15 best team players is what you’re looking for. Looking at the club games is hugely important for us and, between all of us, we’d have covered every one of those games. We gathered during the week and we pooled all that information.

“Sometimes, selection is dictated by injury and how fellas are. From our point of view, we’ve had a good couple of years with these guys and we’ve got to know them, so there is that familiarity, that they have with each other and that we have with them now at this stage as well.

“That feeds into team selection as to how you go about it, you fellas better and you know their form better and you know what they’re like going down the home straight.”