John Horgan on hurling: Kanturk and Charleville threaten to upset Cork's old order

A window of opportunity this weekend with a break for the hurling clubs in the county who will be involved in the knockout stage of the various competitions that they are involved in and how they might have to improvise going forward.

Conversely, it's a time for reflection for those whose season has already ended. In other words, where did it go so wrong?

A few of those clubs only lost out on points difference, a case of so near but yet so far.

But in any group stage of a competition, the margins are wafer-thin, phones were at the ready last weekend among supporters to find out whether or not their campaign was going to be extended or not.

In the Premier SHC all the big guns are still standing with the exception of Blackrock, their demise a major topic for conversation afterwards.

Losing a game is one thing but being trounced to the tune of 11 points is something different altogether and that was the margin of their loss to Kanturk, their advancement and the manner of it one of the stories of the competition thus far.

It's far too early to be making any prediction on who might be on the podium in SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh next month but have we seen the outstanding candidate up to now? With no disrespect to the others, would it not be some achievement if Kanturk or Charleville followed in the footsteps of Carrigtwohill in 2011, when as rank outsiders they claimed the title.

Charleville or Kanturk were well down the pecking order of contenders at the outset, not nearly as much as Carrig were but they are fully deserving of their place in the last seven. And their opponents in the quarter-finals, the Glen for Charleville and Sarsfields for Kanturk will tread warily against them.

So, who will end up with the grand old cannister?

That answer would simply have to be that maybe it's the most wide-open Premier Senior Championship for quite some time.

A case could perhaps be made for all of the seven, some maybe more than others but is there that much separating any of them?

Sars, being the holders, are probably still at the head of matters on the betting slips closely followed by Midleton, the team that they defeated in last year's final.

Midleton's case is slightly more compelling on the evidence that we have witnessed at the group stage, three wins from three, two of those when they had to excavate very deep to secure the spoils, a point win over Newcestown, a two-point win over Bride Rovers.

Sars, on the other hand, lost to Charleville, conceded too many goals in their win over Newtownshandrum and were lack-lustre enough in the opening half against Douglas before advancing comfortably thereafter.

The Barrs were under pressure after losing to Midleton in their opener as were the Glen after their loss to Midleton. But the response was positive from both and they got the job done in their remaining group games.

Now it's Imokilly for the Barrs in the quarter-final and Charleville for the Glen in the other, neither of them going to be easy surely.

Imokilly must cope with the fact that a number of their players are still heavily involved with their clubs in the lower grades, Dungourney, Cloyne, St Catherine's and Aghada. They have overcome that hurdle before but some of their stars from yesteryear have departed and Ciarán Joyce will remain sidelined.

With all divisional teams it is always a wait and see situation but the clubs in Imokilly have been far more accomodating that others.

The expected return of Seamus Harnedy and Diarmuid Healy would advance their cause but it could easily be said that in the three quarter-finals, Glen against Kanturk, Sars versus Charleville and the Barrs-Imokilly, all are surely 50/50 games. 

That's maybe taking the easy way out but the evidence that we have in front of us suggests that will be the case.

Up for grabs

If it's difficult enough to try and find a solution to the PSHC conundrum, it's even more difficult where the Senior A championship is concerned.

Of the six that remain, Watergrasshill, Blarney, Ballinhassig, Carrigtwohill, Erin's Own and Na Piarsaigh, you have three from East Cork in that six with Erin's Own already berthed in the semi-final as a result of their three wins at the group stage.

Blarney are there too, three from three as well but the bar is now going up a notch or two for all of them.

We won't say they are desperate but Erin's Own want to bounce back immediately after their relegation last season from the top flight and they have done most things right thus far.

The complexion of the team is much changed, a good number of their greatest ever servants now playing in the lower grades and being replaced with a more youthful exhuberence that has been yielding a nice dividend on their return journey.

Na Piarsaigh are trying to regain their premier grade status too and after losing start in their group they are deservedly back in the chase too with Daire Connery showing the way up front. 

A player not helped by injury in recent times, he's surely going to be monitored by the Cork management.

Carrigtwohill lost their opener to Inniscarra but it's them and not the Mid Cork team who are still very much in the equation now.

They were probably a bit disappointed not to secure the win over Ballinhassig last Saturday after being ahead by seven points with 20 minutes remaining but after some nerve wracking moments on the sideline the draw was sufficient.

Ballinhassig themselves will be very pleased with their comeback and Cork panelist Darragh O'Sullivan led by example when the need was at its greatest.

Blarney are usually there or thereabouts in their attempts to graduate and their Cork trio, Shane Barrett, Pádraig Power and Mark Coleman, are a poweful backbone to have.

Watergrasshill lean heavily on the scoring exploits of Sean Desmond and Adam Murphy with Daire O'Leary continuing to advance his claims to have a bigger role for Cork next season. It might be a cliche to suggest that the entire remaining six teams in this Senior A championship is very much a level playing field.

As we stated earlier in the week, people have their own points of view on the overall standard of the championship across the grades, maybe some not as enthusiastic as others.

But the main positive has to be as we enter the business end of the campaigns is that very little separates the remaining teams in all the grades.

And that surely makes the whole thing fairly compelling, keeping us engaged as we look forward to a right aul battle for the top honours.

No predictions this time but after the quarter-finals and our learnings from those games we'll be a bit more wiser.