Christy O'Connor: Not having a standout club team in Munster has nothing to do with Cork hurlers

After Glen Rovers were well beaten by the Clare champions Inagh-Kilnamona in last Sunday’s Munster club quarter-final, the ‘Over the Blackspot’ page on Instagram and Facebook posed the question, ‘Does Cork have a club hurling problem?’

 Underneath the headline was a list of Cork’s record in the Munster senior club championship over the last four decades, which has amounted to just five Munster titles, three of which were won by Newtownshandrum between 2003 and ’09.

“For a county with Cork’s hurling tradition, resources and playing population, the statistics raise serious questions,” outlined the post. “Is the fiercely competitive nature of the Cork senior hurling championship taking too much out of teams before Munster? Or is there a genuine gap in quality between Cork’s leading clubs and the provincial heavyweights?” 

In trying to answer that first question around the brutal competitiveness of the senior championship, and if it is taking too much out of sides before the provincial campaign, Glen Rovers would have started out the championship as probably the fifth-ranked team in the competition. But they were still always capable of winning it – which they deservedly did.

That was even true last year when the Glen were in their first year back up from Senior A and were unlucky to lose a quarter-final to Midleton by just two points.

Blackrock didn’t even get out of their group this year but, in different circumstances, are the Rockies good enough to win a championship? Yes. Could they win one next year? Yes.

Dominant

Cork has an extremely competitive senior championship, but it is in no more competitive than the Clare or Tipperary championship. Ranking the competitiveness of the five main club championships that compete in Munster senior, Clare is first (with five different winners in the last five years), with Cork and Tipp vying for second, Limerick fourth and Waterford fifth.

And yet, the Waterford champions – Ballygunner – have completed dominated the provincial championship, with the Gunners having won five of the last seven Munster titles.

The profile of the top club teams now is that they are dominant in their own championship; Loughrea, who lost the All-Ireland final to Ballygunner in January, won their third Galway title in a row last Sunday.

The team Loughrea succeeded as Galway champions – St Thomas’ – won six county titles in succession, 2018-’23. And it took that Thomas’ team until the end of that sequence for them to win an All-Ireland.

Cork just haven’t had a side with that profile in a long time. So is there a genuine gap in quality between Cork’s leading clubs and the provincial heavyweights? Yes.

Of all the Cork clubs to compete in Munster since Newtown were last champions in 2009, Sarsfields are the only club with any real tradition of, not just being successful, but of being highly competitive in the province.

Even in the season before and after Newtown won the 2009 title, Sars were twice beaten narrowly by De La Salle from Waterford — by two points in 2008 when the sides were level 11 times, and after extra time in 2010.

In 2012, Sars were undone by a late goal against Thurles Sarsfields in Semple Stadium, while they lost to Kilmallock in Kilmallock after extra-time in 2014. 

In each of those four years, Sars were beaten by the eventual Munster champions.

Similar to Newtown in the 2000s, when they won four county titles, Sars were an ambitious and seasoned outfit which won four Cork titles in seven years between 2008 to ’14.

Since the Glen were the last club team (not divisional side) to win successive titles in 2015 and 2016, there have been five different Cork representatives in Munster in the intervening years.

Familiar turf

The only side again to make an impact were Sars (champions in 2024), but they competed in Munster for three straight years because Imokilly defeated them in the 2024 county final. Sars were at least used to that provincial terrain.

The reality though, is that the best team in Cork is not – and hasn’t been for a while – better than the best team in Clare, Limerick and Waterford. They might be as good as the best team in Tipperary, but Tipp’s record in the Munster club championship has almost been as poor as Cork’s in the last 17 years.

It’s arguable as to whether the top eight senior teams in Cork are as good, or if not equal, to the standard of the top eight sides in Clare and Galway, and possibly Tipperary. But Cork’s top eight are certainly as good as any of the top eight teams in any other county in the country.

The biggest criticism of the Glen last week was how passive and lifeless they were in the first half, turning up with the appearance of a team expecting it to happen. 

Inagh-Kilnamona, who only won their first senior championship in October, came to Páirc Uí Rinn with an edge and an attitude that they were going to make it happen - which they did.

The Glen’s performance fed into the wider narrative around the Cork senior team but the Glen have done extremely well to win a Cork title three years after being relegated. Not having a standout club team in Munster has nothing to do with the Cork seniors.

The bigger club picture always has to encompass the totality of an entire championship and, from top to bottom, Cork has the best and most competitive championships in the country, all the way from Premier Senior down to Junior.

Just because Cork doesn’t have a standout senior team like it often did in the past certainly doesn’t mean that Cork have a club hurling problem. Because they absolutely do not.