Christy O'Connor on the rise of Kanturk and Charleville from junior hurling to elite contenders

Just after Robbie Cotter scored Blackrock’s second goal against Kanturk in Mourneabbey two weeks ago, which reduced the margin to eight points, Paul Walsh won the break off Grantas Bucinskas’s puckout and took off towards goal.

Walsh popped off the ball to Conor Noonan who immediately played the pass into Liam O’Keeffe to volley the sliotar past Gavin Connolly.

Successive goals from the city side had given Blackrock some hope of a comeback but Kanturk instantly extinguished it with the kind of devastating power play which was the hallmark of an outstanding victory.

It was more than just a win though – Kanturk’s evisceration of Blackrock was a loud declaration of the Duhallow side's ambition and intent in this championship. It was an even bigger statement considering the Rockies had won their opening two matches and were hot favourites to progress straight to a semi-final.

The comprehensive nature of the result fired a huge flare into the sky but Kanturk have been making statements and conducting serious business for years. This time around though, it feels different.

Dangerous

Kanturk have been a threat since first arriving into Cork’s top flight in 2022, having (prior to this season) defeated Midleton, Erin’s Own and Charleville, as well as drawing with Sarsfields, Midleton and Douglas.

However, they only reached the knockout stages once and were well beaten by Blackrock in the 2024 quarter-final. Kanturk had a set status in the county, in that they were deemed to be dangerous - but only dangerous to a point. Now? Kanturk are legitimate contenders to bag a first Seán Óg Murphy Cup.

It's easy to see why. No matter the code, it’s extremely rare for a club team to have so much inter-county experience, at either senior or underage; Alan Walsh, Tommy Walsh, Paul Walsh, Colin Walsh, Ryan Walsh, Darren Browne, Brian O’Sullivan, Lorcán McLoughlin, John Browne, Conor Noonan, Liam O’Keeffe, Daniel O’Connell.

Athletic, physical, powerful, rangy, this group are even more hardened and worldly because of their experience as a dual force. Beating Sarsfields now and advancing to a semi-final for the first time would be a massive watershed moment for Kanturk as a club. Yet this could be a watershed weekend for the Cork Premier senior hurling championship.

Going off the group rankings, Charleville and Kanturk are seeded second and third. Who would have predicted that was possible a decade ago? Nobody.

Both clubs have made huge strides in that time. During the last decade, Charleville completed a fairytale journey that saw them win the county Junior A, Intermediate and Premier Intermediate hurling titles in the space of just eight years. Kanturk also blazed a trail across the last decade but their emergence as a hurling force is even more impressive when they are so deeply embedded in the Duhallow division.

The early developmental stages of Kanturk as a hurling power in Duhallow came in the 1960s when they won five Divisional Junior titles in-a-row before finally securing their first county title at the end of that sequence in 1969.

After later being regarded from Intermediate, a separate juvenile section was set up in 1974 to incubate the hurling culture and it grew exponentially; Kanturk won 10 divisional minor titles in-a-row between 1975-'84.

Both codes had still always coexisted on the same level but hurling assumed a more powerful status after Kanturk bridged a 33-year gap to win a Divisional junior title in 2002, before retaining it a year later. They didn’t win a county title in either of those years but Kanturk were offered the opportunity to go Intermediate when the county board restructured their championships in 2004. They grabbed it.

Working their way up through the grades was always possible when the club started producing some exceptionally talented young players. When Anthony Nash and Aidan Walsh won All-Stars in 2012, Kanturk became just the fourth club to win All-Stars in both codes in the same season, two of which - St Finbarr’s and Ballyboden St Enda’s – would have been regarded as city superpowers at that particular time.

Building

Charleville have also produced one of the greatest Cork players of the modern era in Darragh Fitzgibbon, who could well be out this weekend through injury. 

They haven’t produced as many inter-county players as Kanturk in the last decade but they have been steadily building towards something special since becoming a senior club again in 2020.

In their first five years in the competition, Charleville beat Douglas, Newcestown, Newtownshandrum as well as drawing with Erin’s Own (twice), Fr O’Neill’s and St Finbarr’s.

Charleville were in the relegation final in their first two years in senior, only beating Carrigtwohill 3-2 on penalties in the 2021 decider. It took them until their ninth game in senior to actually win a match, but their victory against Douglas in 2023 saw them top the group as Charleville had already drawn with Erin’s Own and Fr O’Neill’s.

In 2024, they failed to secure even a single point in the group for the first time, losing all three matches before recovering to beat Bishopstown in the relegation final.

Charleville reached last year’s quarter-final but were beaten by Sarsfields by four points. However, their victory against Sars in their opening group game this year was, similar to Kanturk’s win two weeks ago, another loud statement of how the complexion of the Cork Premier senior hurling championship may be changing.

Wins for Kanturk and Charleville on Sunday against Sars and Glen Rovers would be a stretch, but one victory is certainly possible. And if Kanturk can take down Sars, it would be more than just a landmark victory for the Duhallow club – it would be a watershed result for the Cork Premier senior hurling championship.