John Horgan picks his three Premier Senior Hurling quarter-final winners

The business end of the Premier Cork County SHC championship is upon us, there is no safety net now which there was at the group stage in so far that if you lost one game the situation could be salvaged by winning your next.

In fact, in some instances in some of the other grades teams lost two of their three group games but still made it through to the knockout stage.

The champions from last season, Sarsfields will be on the outside looking in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday after taking the direct route to the semi-final.

As a result, they can have a good, hard look at the other six teams still in contention who will be hoping to knock them off their lofty perch in the next few weeks.

Twelve months ago, Midleton came up short against them in the final but there will be cautious optimism in their camp that they can make amends this time.

Newtownshandrum provide the opposition for the magpies on Friday night in the first of the three quarter-finals at Páirc Uí Rinn and there is plenty of reason to suggest that an interesting game awaits.

Midleton are the fancy and that's based very much on last season's rankings and that they had a more difficult road to travel at the group stage this time.

They opened up with fairly substantial victory over Charleville, nine points to the good at the conclusion of that game and that significant margin surprised some followers who might have been expecting a closer outcome.

They were tested to a far greater extent by a very resilient Kanturk unit with the points shared when the last whistle sounded.

Erin's Own, as we expected, made them earn the victory in the final group game but mainly due to the excellence of Conor Lehane, they proved their superiority.

So, it would be fair to say that this Midleton team will be going in against Newtown tonight in a battle-hardened frame of mind.

Those who have witnessed Newtown in action will tell you that they are more than ready for what awaits them at this knockout stage even if they did fall that bit short against Sars in their group encounter.

Only two points kept the teams apart on that occasion with the reigning champions forced to dig very deep to get over the line by a brace of points.

Newtown are one of those teams that the opposition must always be wary of, not altogether knowing what to expect and there is a healthy balance to this team right throughout the field.

Tim O'Mahony's versatility was shown to very positive effect in that game with Sars, moving from centre-back to midfield before occupying the full-forward slot before the end.

Cormac O'Brien, Jamie Coughlan, Ronan Geary and Eoin O'Mahony will provide their markers with no easy task and whilst the smart money is on Midleton, Newtown are likely to be there or thereabouts at the finish.

The Rockies have done everything right up to now, three games, three wins and very much responsible for the Barrs' elimination after securing the bragging rights against them in their group opener, immediately putting the men from Togher on the back foot.

There's a lot of experience of having been there and done that where this Rockies team is concerned and Alan Connolly is playing at the top end of his game.

Robbie Cotter and Fionn Coleman are capable of troubling any defence and with Gary Connolly between the sticks and the Cashman brothers, Stephen Murphy and Alan O'Callaghan further out, there is a good look to this Church oad outfit.

But they'll be under no illusions heading to Fermoy on Saturday night because Kanturk have shown against Midleton and Charleville that they can mix it with the best and going in as underdogs will suit them all the more.

STANDOUT

By all accounts, their derby collision with Charleville has been the competition's standout game thus far and the scoreline tells its own story, 4-20 to 3-21.

Alan Walsh belted in three fine goals while the wise, old warriors, John and Lorcán McLoughlin, Aidan Walsh, Lorcan O'Neill alongside Brian O'Sullivan gives one a clear insight into what might be awaiting the city team here.

This has the look of 51% to 49% in favour of the Rockies and would it be a huge shock if it went Kantutk's way?

Clonmult Memorial Park is the right venue for Imokilly and Fr O'Neill's on Sunday and the divisional team are carrying a fairly hefty tag of favouritism.

But and there's always a but when any competition reaches this stage and didn't O'Neill's have arguably their finest hour on this sod when they stunned the Barrs a few short weeks ago.

And a few miles up the road in Carrigtwohill they gave as good as they got against the Rockies before going under and they had no pressure to deal with in that game with both sides already having extended their campaign.

Imokilly are the fancy of maybe the majority to win this title again and they sauntered through the colleges/divisions section without breaking sweat...

That's all well and good but not having been tested to any extent could be viewed as a negative. Also there is the situation where you have a couple of players being involved with their clubs 24 hours earlier.

Of course, past Imokilly teams have coped very well with that scenario and it certainly wasn't a problem during their hat-trick of title wins from 2017 to 2019.

The depth of the squad provides the team management under Denis Ring with the type of headache that is always looked for and it's all about getting your best 15 on the starting block.

When the groups were constructed, few if any gave O'Neill's any great chance of making progress into the knockout stage.

Despite the presence of many players who enjoyed tremendous success at different levels through the years the thinking was that they would come up short in a group that contained two of the most decorated clubs in the country.

But they manfully stood up to that perceived severe challenge and here they are now deservedly taking their place in the quarter-final of Cork's premier hurling competition.

It will be interesting to see who picks up Deccie Dalton, will it be Cork teammate Ciarán Joyce and at the other end who will shadow Seamus Harnedy for Imokilly?

The atmosphere in Midleton next Sunday should be something special.

Verdict: Blackrock, Midleton and Imokilly to join Sars in the last four.