Cork stats men go head-to-head in O'Callaghan Cup final

Inter-county colleagues will be pitted in opposite corners as Christian Brothers College take on Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG in today’s O’Callaghan Cup (Cork Colleges SAHC) final at Páirc Uí Rinn (2pm).

As well as serving as CBC joint-manager with Tony Wall, Wexford native Traolach Martin is part of the statistics and analysis team in the Cork senior hurling set-up, along with Tomás Ó Mainnín, who oversees the AG.

“It’s hard to avoid contact, given that we’re working so closely together with Cork!” Martin laughs.

“There was obviously the Kilkenny game at the weekend and then you’re compiling reports from that. It’s a different situation – we have very set roles with Cork, doing the analysis stuff, and this is different.

“We both enjoy the coaching element of it and it’s a bit of a break from what we’re doing with Cork.

“It’ll be interesting to be on the sideline against each other, when we spend so much time together in the stats box.”

For Ó Mainnín, the battle lines have gone even further in the Cork camp.

“Donal O’Mahony [Cork selector and CBC deputy principal] is in the camp too!” he laughs.

“In fairness, Pat Ryan is a former Mon boy, so I’ve him on my side.

“Any team with Traolach and Tony Wall involved are going to be very well-drilled and very well-prepared.

“They’ve a very good squad and they’ll probably be favourites on paper but we’ll still go after the challenge.”

When the PGA Championship used to be the final golf major of the year, an advertising tagline used for it was ‘Glory’s Last Shot’ and it’s a similar situation for the O’Callaghan Cup.

Christians were beaten in the Dr Harty Cup quarter-finals with the AG losing in the semis and both schools see this as a chance to end the year on a high.

“We’ve a lot of time for the O’Callaghan Cup,” Martin said, “this is Christians’ fourth final in the last six competitions.

“We always treat it with respect, it’s a Cork A championship and there are a lot of good schools around you have to earn it. To get the final is great and, obviously, we want to go and win it now.

“It’ll be a very tough game and we haven’t played for seven weeks. It gets a bit disjoined – we played our first round against St Colman’s in September, then we played against Midleton in December and now you’re playing in March.

“With club stuff and Harty and Corn Uí Mhuirí, it does tend to get delayed a bit. It’s a slight pity that it does get dragged out, because it’s a very good competition.

“We’re looking forward to it – for lads in sixth year, it’s nice to finish their six years of school hurling with a county final in Páirc Uí Rinn.

“There’s a lot of work goes into the Harty, but then it finishes kind of abruptly.

“It’s nice to have this game to look forward and, for the sixth years, it will be their last game in school colours.

“You’re looking for a good show and to hopefully get a win.”

Equally, Ó Mainnín is keen that the Leaving Certificate students in Gaelcholáiste Mhuire can sign off on a positive note.

“To be fair, we’ve been involved in plenty big games this year,” he says, “between the Harty semi-final, the Dean Ryan final and now another final.

“It’s great that our fellas are getting more big-game experience. A big word that we’d use would be ‘temperament’ and that’s what this is all about, getting them used to big games.

“It’s great for them and our big message this week is that we’re just trying to buy a bit more time together for the sixth years.

“It’s their last run at it and there are some great characters there. They’ve been together for 18 months and we know that Wednesday will be their last day.

“They’re a great bunch and they deserve another day out. Those fifth- and sixth-years have never won anything in their time in school so it’s an opportunity to get those boys medals.

“The coaching that they’ve been getting from Éanna Desmond and Seán Óg [Ó hAilpín] is top-class and we’ve given ourselves a great chance through the quality of the preparation.”