John Horgan on Cork hurling: Future of divisional and college sides has to be in doubt

With the club programme gone into hibernation for a couple of weeks here on Leeside, the divisions had an opportunity to make a statement with regard to being in the equation at the knockout stage of the PSHC.

On Wednesday night, Imokilly and UCC opposed each other in the first semi-final of the Divisions/Colleges section while next Sunday, Seandún will battle it out with Muskerry in the second semi-final.

The winners of those two games will clash in the final with a place in the quarter-final of the championship up for grabs.

The complexion of the divisional participation in the latter stages has changed drastically over the years and the dominance that was once enjoyed is no more.

However, there was a time when it was much different, particularly in the '90s when divisional units were competing at the business end of the campaign and in that decade you had Carbery, Avondhu and Imokilly taking home the Sean Óg Murphy trophy.

Carbery were perhaps the most surprising but deserving winners in 1994, defeating Midleton in the final, while it was Avondhu's turn in 1996 with Imokilly triumphant in 1997 and 1998.

Not bad going at all it could be said from a divisional perspective, four titles in that period.

Subsequently, you had the three-in-a-row Imokilly winners in 2017, 2018 and 2019, a side containing some terrific hurlers who donned the red jersey of Cork.

The East Cork division won it again two years ago under the guidance of that great hurling man, Denis Ring and quite a few of that team are now the proud holders of four county senior medals, Seamie Harnedy, Brian Lawton, Ciaran O'Brien and John Cronin among them.

Last season, however, they were well beaten by the Barrs in the quarter-final and at the outset of this season's campaign, they were not overly fancied to be in the chase as they had been in other years.

The partcipation of divisions in the championship has always been a bone of contention in some quarters, the argument being that they have the best players in their ranks who are not playing at Senior A or Premier level.

RULED OUT

That argument is not as strong now. Quite a number of eligible players do not make themselves available for selection. The main reason is their club management teams don't encourage it as they strive for success at their own level.

In fact, a few times over the past number of years, some divisional sides did not participate at all, that applying to both codes.

Every division would be more than capable of competing strongly if they were able to choose from a full hand of their best players.

Across all the divisions, there are quality hurlers involved with their clubs and that has to be first and foremost for them.

On the participation of the third-level colleges, both UCC and MTU, formerly Cork IT have top-notch players from across both provinces attending. In a perfect world, they could field an inter-county team but for a multitude of reasons, that does not happen.

UCC have just two titles to their credit, 1963 and 1970, the 1970 side containing former greats Pat McDonnell, Seamus Looney, Tipp's John Kelly, Kilkenny's Mick Crotty, Willie Moore from Limerick and the greatest of them all, Ray Cummins. The college take pride in competing every season but it's been a long time now since they were viable contenders.

Back in 2011, Cork IT were the hot fancy to win their first title but rank outsiders Carrigtwohill played the game of their lives to claim the title.

The current format of the championship is very successful but, at the same time, it could be described as cut-throat and failure to impact early on could land you in the murky waters of a relegation struggle.

Former champions Glen Rovers, Na Piarsaigh, Erin's Own and Carrigtwohill have all been relegated, the latter three now striving to be elevated again.

Two of them, Erin's Own and Na Piarsaigh, collided in the curtain-raiser to the Rockies and the Glen last Saturday and the Caherlag side got off to the perfect start.

It wasn't an epic but the object of any first game exercise is to bag the points on offer and to be fair, Erin's Own, it could be said, with a much changed team from other years fully deserving of their win.

Gone now are great servants, Kieran 'Hero' Murphy, brother Eoghan, Stephen Cronin, Shay Bowen, now replaced by a younger brigade led by Cork star, Robbie O'Flynn.

DRAMATIC

Local derbies have always been a feature of the championship in all the different grades. Now, with the new format, we have them more than ever, teams from the same division, maybe just a short distance apart, squaring up to each other.

The opening round of the Cork PIHC featured four teams from East Cork, all competing against each other in the same group.

The term Group of Death is much used these days, maybe too frequently but in this case it surely applies as it did in Midleton last Sunday evening when Castlemartyr faced Lisgoold which was followed by Cloyne against Dungourney.

There is no better venue than Clonmult Memorial Park for these types of games and it was Castlemartyr and Cloyne emerging with the spoils.

Castlemartyr will have been delighted to secure the opening points on offer, all the more so because they are competing this season without the influential presence of injured Cork star Ciarán Joyce.

And as they say, a good start can be half the battle and the same scenario applied to Cloyne against Dungourney.

For a long stretch, Dungourney looked the more likely winners, leading by eight points at half-time and by five with just a couple of minutes remaining.

But there is a newfound spirit running through this Cloyne team these days, already league winners this season and in the most dramatic of finishes, they conjured up two very late goals to grab what might be described as a sensational victory.

Both games were a reminder of other times when the junior championship in East Cork attracted a huge audience to this great venue.

HIGH PRICE

A feature of a lot of games last weekend was the number of times referees moved the ball to a more favourable position because of dissent. There is too much ill discipline in all codes of sport, rugby excluded, when a free is awarded against a team. The new rule should certainly help in trying to eliminate that and all team managers must impress that strongly to their players.

In the final analysis, it could cost you dearly as we learned in the Senior A encounter between Blarney and Castlelyons.

In the closing stages of that game, we read of the ball being moved and Cork star Mark Coleman punishing Castlelyons dearly, belting home the winning goal to secure for his team a one-point victory.

All teams just have to learn the cost of dissent and ill-discipline when a decision goes against them.