Cork's Dr Harty Cup woes a concern but don't give whole picture

In the GAA, everything exists together as a vast ecosystem.

There may be some elements of one part influencing another, but often we are guilty of looking for domino effects when things are rarely if ever so neat.

For proof, look at the follow-on record of All-Ireland minor-winning sides in the U21/U20 grade three years later – while there are successful examples double victories, they are in the minority.

Kerry, for example, won five All-Ireland MFC titles in a row in the 2010s and didn’t even make a final in the equivalent period at the higher age. Against that, Cork won the U20 hurling championship three times in a four-year period and none of them was matched with a minor victory.

When the county’s wait for a senior All-Ireland – it’ll be 21 season by the time the Liam MacCarthy Cup is handed out in July, just in case you have never consumed GAA media – was joined with minor and U20 droughts, they were a perfect package for the prosecution to proffer.

‘We’re doomed now and we’re doomed in the future and Rebel Óg and the development squads are a cod,’ is a handy refrain – it’s far easier to be a pessimist who is never disappointed rather than someone carrying hope that will be dented far more often than it is fulfilled.

However, both the minor and U20 waits ended in the summer of 2021 – the U20 was the delayed 2020 season, but six weeks later Cork were suddenly back-to-back champions as the 2021 title was claimed, too.

Then, they were victorious under Ben O’Connor in 2023 and now there was a promising body of work. Of course, those successes can be now be used as an extra stick with which to beat the senior wait.

All of which is a preamble to bring us to the Dr Harty Cup, which resumes this week with four quarter-final ties to be played, three tomorrow and one on Friday.

Midleton are the sole Cork representatives left in the competition, with St Joseph’s CBS of Nenagh their opponents in Bansha tomorrow. Nenagh are one of three Tipp sides to make the knockout stage along with Thurles CBS and Our Lady’s of Templemore, while Waterford (De La Salle and Blackwater CS) and Clare (St Flannan’s College and St Joseph’s from Tulla) have two each. Limerick have none.

Looked at in isolation, one school from eight remaining is a poor return for Cork and it’s easy to say that Tipp being on three is a sign of good times there. Had Gaelcholáiste Mhuire An Mhainistir Thuaidh not fallen to a late Templemore fightback, the counties would have had two each. That 25 percent share would in turn have reflected Cork having four from 16 on the starting grid.

A more worrying stat is the fact that Cork have not had a finalist since Christian Brothers College made the 2020 final just before the Covid-19 pandemic, but again, outright success cannot be used as a yardstick at the exclusion of others. In any case, it’s not a new worry, either – Cork’s last win was Midleton in 2019 and before that was Midleton in 2006. You have to go back to 2003 and St Colman’s College of Fermoy for the last instance of another school from the county claiming the silverware.

Of that Midleton team that won seven years ago, only Ciarán Joyce has gone on to become a Cork regular starter – incidentally, the beaten CBC team featured Jack Cahalane, Shane Barrett and Pádraig Power - but plenty of those players have become valuable players at club level. 

Cork have regularly had the greatest number of schools involved – before the competition was trimmed to 16 for the current academic year, 21 took part in 2024-25 and seven of those were Leeside institutions. While they may not have gone on to ultimate glory, a greater number of players were exposed to hurling at a high level.

The issue, such as it is, is that relative success for the many may not be compatible with literal success for the elite few.