Cork club hurling relegation: Picking five clubs facing the drop
Charleville's Darragh Fitzgibbon racing onto the sliotar with Kanturk's Ryan Walsh during the Co-Op Superstores Premier SHC at Buttevant. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
For 10 clubs, Saturday at 4pm will make or break their year.
Those five relegation play-off finals will determine whether those clubs can head towards 2025 with renewed optimism or enter a winter of hard questions and regret.
Kanturk have been an example of the boost winning a final-day showdown can bring. Others know one relegation battle can spawn another.
In a handful of cases, the play-off finals pit the leakiest defence against the least effective attack. That is most pointedly the backstory in the Premier Senior decider between Bishopstown and Charleville.
The Town have scored a mere 0-31 in their group games as they struggled to build any momentum between absentees and decline.
It appeared a similar story last year until an against-all-odds escape against Glen Rovers. Can they summon another resurrection?
It will take something big to turn around a streak of 12 winless games across league and championship in 2024. Hurling in Division 5 next year, they will be facing more Junior clubs than Senior.
Charleville know the league isn’t the best determinant of championship success. They topped Division 1 to contest the final against Sarsfields. With Darragh Fitzgibbon back from county duty, hopes were high.
Both sides have survived relegation finals before, the Town in 2020, Charleville in 2021 and '22. Form favours the North Cork men.
The Senior A play-off offers a similar dynamic. Carrigtwohill are a Division 1 side who would’ve entered with high hopes. Cloyne are battling the shifting demographics and have slid down the rankings to Division 6.
Cloyne have equally struggled for scores with 1-35 in three games and the loss of Noel Cahill to a straight red card won’t help their cause.
By contrast, Carrig have gained a modicum of momentum after their two-goals-in-three-minutes comeback against Courcey Rovers. But for a controversial levelling free, they might’ve secured their safety that evening.
“Our last 10-12 minutes was some of the best hurling we’ve played all year in terms of execution, ball to hand, the pace,” said manager John ‘Tweek’ Griffin. “We didn't do enough of that throughout the game.
“We can't do anything about that. We’re disappointed but we know we have to regroup.
Speaking about Cloyne, he added: “It’ll mean a lot to them as well. It’s a big game for us, a big game for the club in terms of history and other things. But it is what it is. We have to deal with it.
“We have to bring that last 10-15 minutes to the first 10-15 minutes in a couple of weeks’ time. We just have to pull together like we never have and drive on again.”
When these sides met last year, Carrig emerged 0-19 to 1-11 winners as both qualified for the knockout stages.
These sides were last in relegation trouble in 2021 when Carrig lost a Premier Senior play-off to Charleville on penalties, while Cloyne survived the drop against Bandon.
At Premier Intermediate, no team finished without a point so Aghabullogue and Kilworth find themselves in danger.
Aghabullogue were only promoted last year and will count themselves somewhat unlucky to be in this situation after a three-way tiebreaker.
The second-highest scorers in Intermediate A, Cloughduv, are also bracing for a relegation play-off despite their 8-44 total. After missing their first outing, Mark Verling has notched a remarkable 4-20 in two games.
They play Aghada who will be targeting a first goal of the year while clamping down on Verling.
At Premier Junior, Argideen Rangers have also yet to bag a goal while remaining competitive.
Their opponents Douglas are appearing in their third relegation final in a row. They beat Meelin in extra-time to stay Intermediate in 2022 before losing a nine-goal nailbiter to Youghal last year.
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