UCC the title holders as Canon O'Brien Cup returns

While Cork go into Thursday night’s Canon O’Brien Cup against UCC as the challengers rather than the champions, one hopes that there might be a good omen or two from last year’s fixture.

Well, we say ‘last year’ but the 2024 edition of the fixture actually took place on Saturday, December 30, 2023. While Cork led by 1-12 to 1-9 at half-time that day, a strong second half from UCC reel in the deficit and win by a point, 1-24 to 1-23.

Due to the large crossover between the sides, Cork management are always in a position where they are assessing players on both teams – UCC’s winner was scored by Brian Hayes, who would go on to have such a great year for the Rebels, while the trophy was lifted by Robert Downey. Now installed as the Cork skipper, the hope is that the Glen Rovers man will be claiming more silverware in the coming year.

The win left Cork with a 7-3 record in the overall roll of honour since the fixture was inaugurated in 2013. There have been two occasions when it was not played, 2018 (postponed due to bad weather and unable to be refixed) and 2021, due to Covid-19.

The first-ever outing on January 19, 2013 doubled up as a Waterford Crystal Cup first-round tie, as college sides had at the time the option of entering inter-county pre-season competitions.

Cork won that by 3-20 to 1-16, two goals in the space of a minute just before half-time, through Patrick Horgan and Paudie O’Sullivan, putting them in control. The following year, Cork weren’t in the Waterford Crystal due to their team holiday and so the game served as a national league warm-up, with Horgan and Stephen Moylan netting in a 2-19 to 1-14 triumph for Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s side.

The following year, Anthony Nash marked his appointment as Cork captain by leading the Rebels to victory against the Students, 1-26 to 2-12. With Kieran Kingston having taken over from Barry-Murphy for 2016, Cork made it four wins on the trot but they needed second-half goals from O’Sullivan and the emerging Darragh Fitzgibbon to secure a 2-12 to 0-13 victory.

However, UCC were not to be denied indefinitely and in 2017 a youthful Cork were beaten by 0-22 to 1-13, with Alan Cadogan scoring seven points for UCC.

Cork regained the cup when the competition was revived in 2019 but it was a close-run thing, Horgan and Condon with late points in a 1-24 to 1-23 victory. It was just as competitive in 2020, but this time it was UCC coming out on top, with Seán Hayes landing the winner for a 2-18 to 1-20 victory.

Few could have imagined what lay ahead in the GAA landscape over the next two years and it says much about the esteem in which the Canon is held that the cup’s future was never in doubt. Cork won by 1-17 to 1-15 when the game was restored to the calendar, Shane Kingston’s second-half points vital, and they retained the cup with a 0-25 to 1-15 win in what proved to be the first of the two meetings in 2023.

UCC would end the year with the trophy, though.