Cork Club Hurling Talking Points: What we learned from a packed weekend...

Anyone with a Clubber TV subscription certainly got their money’s worth this weekend, with some brilliant premier senior hurling championship action in the quarter-finals as well as a rip-roaring relegation play-off being on offer.

Many hurling followers not attending the games in person would have logged on in anticipation of watching a gripping encounter in Midleton on Sunday.

If there was going to be a runaway winner then that was likely to be the reigning champions Imokilly, but St Finbarr’s had not read the script, with the Togher men ending up winning pulling up.

Initially, it looked as though the Barrs may have blown their first-half wind advantage, as they only led by a point with time almost up, but a bustling Brian Hayes finish got them the goal they craved, and Ben Cunningham added another to ensure the lead was five.

Crucially, they hit the ground running at the start of the second half as well, as the eastern barony only had a pair of Bill Cooper points to show for the first 10 minutes in which they had the elements at their backs.

VULNERABLE

The quarter-final stage is always going to be the round where Imokilly are at their most vulnerable and that proved to be the case here. The sight of Ciaran Joyce departing early was a clear illustration of this, with a number of Imokilly’s key players having been involved in huge games for their respective clubs earlier in the weekend. The effort clearly took a toll.

A second goal by ball magnet John Wigginton-Barrett after a brilliant run through the middle by the impressive Jack O’Kelly had the Clubber viewers scrambling to flick over to the Newtownshandrum versus Erin’s Own relegation play-off tie in Mourneabbey, as that had started to get very interesting.

The north Cork side were a whole 11 points down at half-time after conceding four first-half goals. They were almost out for the count. 

To come back and force an unlikely draw was of Rocky proportions.

Tim O’Mahony and Cormac O’Brien stormed into it, as you would expect, but so did Mattie Ryan, Bill Collins, Jamie Coughlan, Stephen Minihane, and Michael Lenihan, with Lenihan proving to be the physical and awkward target man they required while playing with the advantage of the wind.

The Barrs had managed to clip over a couple of scores at the start of the second half to psychologically scar Imokilly and let them know that this was not going to be their day. Erin’s Own were not able to do this, with Newtown slotting the first seven scores of the half to put the Glounthaune men in panic mode down the home stretch.

Despite getting back into the game quickly, the likes of Peter O’Shea and Robbie O’Flynn did clip over a few scores that looked like saving Erin’s Own’s skin, but a late Newtown goal levelled it, and indeed, Tim O’Mahony will have been frustrated that his two late efforts to win it drifted wide.

FITTING

It seems fitting that the game goes to a replay. Extra-time, and dare we say it, potential penalties would have been too cruel.

Newtown’s neighbours Charleville really put it up to Sarsfields earlier on Sunday in Castletownroche, but they will regret some of their shooting which left the Munster champions off the hook. Darragh Fitzgibbon fought manfully, before receiving his marching orders for a second yellow, with only the excellent David Forde really helping him out on the scoreboard.

Sars had a better spread of scorers and they had the Jack O’Connor trump card to play, with the inter-county man impacting the game with important scores at the right junctures.

The weekend had started with the absorbing meeting of Midleton and Glen Rovers at Páirc Uí Rinn on Friday evening with the Magpies emerging as the unlikely winners after they had been seven points down early in the second half.

Cormac Beausang’s second goal had given them a lifeline, but two special Simon Kennefick scores seemed to have won it for the Blackpool men only for Midleton to score the last four points of the game to turn a two-point defeat into a two-point victory.

The evergreen Luke O’Farrell scored two of those crucial scores to highlight the importance of real bench impact at this level. Conor Lehane was crucial, as always, as was Beausang with his brace. 

Clare import Killian McDermott put in a brilliant shift, while Tommy O’Connell was the beating heart of the side with his all-action display.

The Glen will be gutted, but that’s championship hurling for you.