Cork teams face crucial ties

In the most dramatic fashion, the senior hurlers’ season ended last Sunday, but for a number of Cork teams, there is still a lot to play for and they will all be in action this coming weekend.

All-Ireland Under 20 Hurling Final

Cork v Offaly on Sunday in Thurles at 3pm

This is the last chance of a hurling title coming to Leeside as Cork chase a 3rd in 4 years at this level, and this on the back of a very impressive Munster campaign winning all 5 games.

Without doubt the final win over Clare was probably their best display, given the degree of controversy that surrounded that game, with both sides missing key players owing to a bizarre rule, in Cork’s case Eoin Downey.

All that though is over and Manager Ben O’Connor is glad it’s behind them. “My views on the matter are well known but Eoin is back. We are delighted to have him as he is a big player for us, we moved on and are preparing for what we know will be a big test.”

Ben was in Carlow for the Leinster Final and was impressed with Offaly. “A very good mobile team and even when they lost a player, they never gave up and were deserving winners. We will need to be at our best to win.”

The level of support they bring will also be a factor: “Massive - I have never seen anything like it at under 20 and it certainly helped them when the game was tight.”

Ben also hailed his own players for their spirit: “Ever since we started there has been great unity in the squad, we see it in training and in our games, against Limerick we were qualified and we still battled to get a win and then in the final, absolutely great group.”

Leo O’Connor has moulded this Offaly side into a very good team and they have good players in key positions, none more so then dynamic corner forward Adam Screeney who scored 1-12 in the win over Wexford, 1-3 from play, Cork will need to keep tabs on this lad, but they have defenders well capable of that.

Dan Ravenhill, Sam Bourke, Colin Spain, Cormac Egan and Charlie Mitchell are others with the qualities required to win at this level.

For all that, and even allowing for their huge support, this is a classy Cork side who also have physicality that the lads from the Faithful County might lack.

Brion Saunderson has hardly put a foot wrong in goal, Shane Kingston has been one of the stand out defenders along with Darragh O’Sullivan, Mark Howell and Eoin Downey, while Ben O’Connor is another addition to a strong defence.

Michael Mullins is an excellent captain in midfield and what a goal he got in the final.

The attack is so effective with Ben Cunningham the stand out player, with William Buckley, Ross O’Sullivan, Colin Walsh, Diarmuid Healy and Adam O’Sullivan all chipping in with high workrate and crucial scores.

The strength of the squad is also reflected in the options the management have and the bench at times has been vital.

Cork are favourites and if they play to their undoubted potential and guard against any degree of complacency they will win.

The match is live on C103.

All-Ireland Football Championship Rd 2

Cork v Kerry in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday at 3pm

In the immediate aftermath of the win in Navan, John Cleary was thrilled with the display: “We always knew this was going to a tough place to come, and while we were in control early in the 2nd half, the response when we went behind was brilliant.”

The importance of the win cannot be overstated: “Had we lost with Kerry and Mayo to come, we would be in a precarious position. As it stands our season is still very much alive, and we can now focus on Kerry which is going to be another challenge.

“No question this is where every player wants to be at this time of the season - big championship games in summer and they don’t come much bigger than Cork and Kerry.”

John has one concern, “that game today (Louth) took a lot out of our players on a warm sunny day while Kerry were rested, but look we will get a recovery done and be ready for Saturday.”

Injuries will also be an issue with Sean Meehan and Tommy Walsh likely to miss out. On the plus side Rory Maguire should be okay having missed the trip to Navan.

Both Kevin O’Donovan and Cian Kiely impressed when introduced, as did the hard work of John O’Rourke and Conor Corbett both getting important points at vital times.

While Brian Hurley showed what we missed in Ennis, with some great scores, Ruairi Deane and Brian O’Driscoll also did very well.

Kerry will arrive in the Páirc hurting from the loss to Mayo and determined to get their campaign back on track. There is no doubt that they have yet to replace the retired David Moran in midfield and could find Ian Maguire and Colm O’Callaghan a handful.

It’s their attack that has the capacity to do damage, with Paudie and David Clifford proving so hard to contain; any team that can do that are in with a great chance of winning, but so far most have failed in that task.

Luke Fahy and Daniel O’Mahoney will need to be at their very best on Saturday, because good as they were last week, this is a step up in class.

It’s not a knockout game, but Cork will keen to show they are an improving side, and build on the win of last week.

However, the odds favour Kerry to get the two points on offer leaving it all resting on the last round for the top spot and the direct route into the quarter-final.

2nd and 3rd head to the preliminary quarter-final and a clearer picture will emerge after the weekend.

The game is live on C103 and hopefully there will be a sizeable Cork support in attendance.

Munster Minor Football Final

Cork v Kerry on Friday in Tralee at 7.30pm

When these sides met in the QF a few weeks ago, Cork ran out winners but given the vagaries of the draw they were always likely to run into one another in the final and so it has proved, so maybe a bit of a phoney war that night in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

In their respective semi-finals, Kerry were far more impressive, eventually accounting for Limerick, while Cork took a while to see off Tipperary.

Cork are actually going for a 3rd successive Munster title and that might give them an extra motivation, but Kerry on home soil will be a different outfit. Their manager Wayne Qulligan rates this Cork side and knows they face a tough task on Friday and they will have to plan without the injured Jack O’Sullivan.

After the Tipperary game, Cork manager Ray O’Mahoney felt there was probably a degree of complacency going into the game, and they will learn from that. “Anytime you play Kerry you need to be at your best, we won the last day and they will be itching for revenge, but we will approach the game confident we can win and give it our best shot.”

There is a lot to like about this Cork team with Billy Curtin a solid goalkeeper, fronted by Frank Hurley, Matthew Ahern and Odhran Foley.

Darragh Clifford and Mark Hetherington are a good midfield pairing, while in attack Dara Sheehy, Sean Coakley and Denis O’Mullane have an eye for goal, which proved crucial in the semi-final.

Paddy Lane is a big player for Kerry, with Ben Murphy, Evan Boyle and Jamie Moynihan offering good support.

Games between these two teams can be hard to call; home advantage will help Kerry, but Cork are well capable of repeating the result of the QF.

Interestingly both progress into the All-Ireland QFs with Leinster opposition, Dublin and Kildare, waiting.

All-Ireland Camogie Championships

Having enjoyed mixed results in their respective league and provincial championships, both Cork Senior and Intermediate teams begin their Glen Dimplex All-Ireland campaigns with away trips this weekend.

On the back of a league final loss and an even more disappointing Munster Championship defeat to Waterford, the seniors head to Athenry to face a Galway side that has won the last 3 meetings between the teams.

Cork will also be without one of their most consistent players for this difficult encounter as Laura Hayes is ruled out with Manager Matthew Twomey confirming that the St Catherine’s defender will play no part in the championship owing to injury.

Matthew also said: “We had a good chat after the Waterford loss, addressed a few issues and hopefully we are back on track. We have got in a good block of training and now we need a good performance on Saturday.”

Down and Clare are the other two teams in this group and Cork should progress, but they could badly do with beating Galway who appear to have the edge over this particular group of players.

They were very poor in the loss to Waterford and they will be determined to show that they are better than that, but injuries will shape the starting 15.

A win would be welcome, a performance in keeping with the standards they have set themselves might just as important and an indication if they are heading in the right direction.

In contrast to the seniors, the intermediate team are in a winning vein, following up their league success by beating Kerry in the Munster Final and impressively at that.

So they make the trip to Callan facing a Kilkenny side they beat in the league final after a replay; once again hey will look to Niamh O’Leary, Leanne O’Sullivan, Rachel Hart, Lauren Homan and Cliona O’Leary to get off to a winning start.

Both games have 5pm starts on Saturday.

One other game on Monday is the Senior League Final featuring Sarsfields v Inniscarra - time and venue to be confirmed.

County championships

The opening games in the divisional and colleges section of the County Senior Championship get underway next week.

Two games on Tuesday in hurling; Muskerry v Carrighdoun in Ballygarvan and Carbery v Avondhu venue to be confirmed, while in football it’s Muskerry v Imokilly in Carrigtowhill with a 7.30pm start for all games.