Despite challenges, UCC 'ain't going nowhere'

Since the change in format for the Cork county championships, Imokilly have had a near-monopoly on the divisions and colleges section of the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC.

The one exception to that was in the first year after the rejigging, 2020, when UCC emerged into the county championship proper. A team featuring Blarney trio Mark Coleman, Shane Barrett and Pádraig Power, Paddy O’Loughlin of Limerick, Tipperary’s Mark Kehoe and Shane Conway of Kerry overcame Na Piarsaigh and then lost in the semi-finals to Blackrock by a single point after extra time, 3-26 to 0-34.

The altered schedule has been a factor in the college side’s difficulty in making it back to such a stage since then, but, as club president Dr Paddy Crowley outlines in a piece in the new Cork GAA Yearbook, UCC’s participation in the county championships is not in doubt.

“You’d hear regularly that UCC shouldn’t be involved in the championship,” he says.

“My answer to that is very simple. Collegians played in the Cork championship in the 1880s and 1890s, so we’re one of the oldest clubs – and we are a club.

“And from a GAA point of view, it’s very important to present the GAA as an optional sport in third level. Being in the Cork championship is part of that.”

In the past two seasons, UCC have lost out to Muskerry at the semi-final stage of the divisions and colleges section. They are limited in that they can only choose four players per division and that is something that Crowley feels hampers them to an unfair degree.

“It’s a crazy rule and we’re almost certainly going to contest it,” he says.

“The majority of our players in UCC come from East Cork. They can’t get on the Imokilly team but they can’t play for us. So we end up with very restricted access to players.

“And people saying, ‘You don’t contribute anything to hurling [in Cork]’ - I think that’s completely untrue. People love to see UCC playing the kind of hurling that we play because they’re all young.

“They’re all under 21. They play a very bright and mobile type of game, without any inhibitions, and they’re a pleasure to watch.”

Once upon a time, players from senior clubs lined out for UCC against their native sides in the championship. What that is no longer the case, players from grades below the top flight are not always accessible, either.

“One of the problems I see is the rise and rise in power of the club coach,” says Crowley. “The club team manager, in lots of places, seems to be a law unto himself. We make a point that if you are accepting a scholarship – funding from UCC – that you do have commitments to UCC. If we’re giving you a scholarship, we expect you to contribute to the championship – that’s part of the deal.

“It’s a struggle getting a team out, there’s no doubt about that. We’re constantly trying to cobble it together.

“But we ain’t going nowhere, as they say. We intend to continue to play in the championship.”