How key subs' scoring supplies have been after the first round of Cork hurling and football championships

The bench press pun gets thrown around often when teams profit from the injection of fresh legs, often times turning a championship game on its head to go on and win. And while at this stage only one round of the group stages in the Cork hurling and football championships have been played so far, the current team lifting the most on the hurling front is Seandún.

The City division have scored a total of 2-55 in their two games, with a total of 18% coming from substitutes introduced. The most impressive of any of those bench hauls came from Passage West’s Tomás O’Neill, who clipped 0-4 in the victory over Muskerry.

But, when you factor in that both of their games played so far have been dragged to extra time, that bench contribution is less of a surprise. And that point is reinforced when the teams with the second and third highest bench contribution are Muskerry and Carbery respectively.

And of the club outfits that lined out on the opening weekend, the greatest bench impact was a total of 8% from Blackrock, after Kevin O’Keeffe and Ryan Sweeney notched a point each.

That percentage currently sits higher than the 5% of bench-scoring contributions they had in last year’s championship – and the same 5% they got from this year’s league – while last year’s bench-scoring leaders were Charleville, who had a staggering 23% of their overall championship scoring tally come from substitutes.

Only two other teams had a bench impact greater than 10%, Newtownshandrum and Erin’s Own both getting 11% of their scores from substitutes across five total games after their drawn relegation playoff.

The leaders so far at Senior A are Na Piarsaigh, after Kevin Moynihan notched two from play against Erin’s Own, although their 0-15 haul was the lowest of any outfit in that grade on the opening weekend. His tally equates to 13% of their total, while Fermoy had a bench contribution of 11%, courtesy of points each from Arlen Aherne and John O’Keeffe, the latter’s white flag coming from a free.

All but four teams at Senior A – Blarney, Castlelyons, Courcey Rovers and Killeagh – had bench players on the scoresheet in the first round of fixtures.

Premier Intermediate’s biggest bench lifters were Cloyne who saw 14% of their scoring come from subs, all from Michael Cahill’s goal that proved to be the winner against Dungourney.

On the football front, Ballincollig have the highest percentage of bench scores after one round of any team, with 32% of their 3-10 against Castlehaven arriving from the bench through Danny Miskella, Sean O’Neill and Daragh O’Shea.

Valley Rovers had 20% of their 1-7 come from the bench, while Senior A leaders O’Donovan Rossa had 29% of their scoring provided by substitutes, as their comeback against Newmarket fell just short.

Rockchapel’s comeback win over Bantry Blues was boosted by a strong bench contribution of 12%, John Walsh their only scorer in that victory.