Junior A Hurling Championship 2022

[Patman360]

It's a difficult one for Duhallow I feel as there's not much there when it comes to teams competing at Junior A level at the same time, most of the football clubs have moved beyond it, and hurling is, for the most part, second in the division (though there are of course a handful of very good teams). Not sure Avondhu would want them when it comes to championship either, given the Avondhu championship is by far the most interesting and competitive of the Junior A hurling championships as is by some distance. The discrepancies between divisions in both codes can be huge at times.

Personally would look for a county wide Junior A championship of say 32 or whatever, with promotion into Premier Junior, and then put lower teams into a similar format B championship and so on, move a few up and down between A/B/C each year and I think you'll have more competitive championships over time (would do something like this for both codes if I had my way). Let the divisions run off their own championships as they see fit, maybe during the intercounty season or something. Just a vague idea really, but I imagine the likes of Dromtarriffe and Grenagh would develop better and benefit more in the long term if they were having group games with the likes of Ballyhooly and Killavullen, instead of dishing out hammerings to Kanturk and Cloughduv's second teams for example.

 

[Patman360]

Anyway, Muskerry results:


Ballinora 2-19 Iveleary 1-8
Eire Og 2-14 Ballincollig 0-12
Blarney 0-21 Inniscarra 0-16


Not too much to say on Ballinora-Iveleary, comfortable but hard fought all the same, Ballinora led 0-9 to 0-2 at half time, but with 20 left it was back to just 3, 0-10 0-7, Iveleary scoring 5 in a row. Iveleary have come on massively since I last saw them, very physical and dogged to play against, can see why they caused Eire Og a bit of bother last week, they've probably got one eye the football with CNM next weekend admittedly and only had 3 subs, but they gave a decent account of themselves I thought. Ballinora were wasteful at times, hit a lot of wides and probably left a goal or two behind them, but ultimately had enough hurling to get through comfortably towards the end, outscored Iveleary in the last 20 minutes 2-9 to 1-1, they're still tinkering a bit, big panel there of 32 and a lot of lads have been given chances and moved around, so hard to see where they are at fully until they come across say Grenagh or someone in the knockouts, some serious young lads in there like Kingston and Byrne though, just got to find the right balance to the team.

Ballinora and Eire Og both through along with Grenagh so far, results mean Iveleary and Ballincollig are both gone now. The 3 team group is by far the most interesting and there's now the possibility of a 3 way tie if Donoughmore can overturn Blarney (could even end as a tie on score difference).

 

[tango tony]

Result from Muskerry:
Blarney 0-21 Inniscarra 0-16

 

[Fandango]

Avondhu results from weekend.
Glanworth 3-25 Araglen 0-12
Shanballymore 1-19 Fermoy 2-10
Killavullen 4-10 Clyda 3-14
Ballyhooly 2-14 Churchtown/Liscaroll 1-19
Dromina 0-21 Buttevant 1-10
Glanworth/Q, Shanballymore/Q, Dromina/Q Ballyhooly/Q, Clyda/Q all qualified for 1/4 finals and Killavullen, Killshannig, Churchtown/Liscaroll favourites to join them barring a shock.

 

[Crankycorner]

City division quarter final draw

The Glen v Nemo
Bishopstown v Whitechurch
Vincents v Dillons
Passage v Na Piarsaigh

Open draw for semi final I believe

 

[HondaGaels]

Result from Ballyhea.
Liscarroll Churchtown Gaels 3-23
Charleville 4-16 (don't quote me on this then turned off the scoreboard immediately)
First things first. Ciaran O'Regan has no concern for player welfare at all. Charleville had a player who was blatantly in distress on his own 65 and O'Regan was refusing to allow the medical teams deal with him. Wouldn't stop the game either. My club are notorious for giving abuse to referees and I try bite my tongue but he was genuinely an embarrassment tonight. Completely up his own arse.
Gaels weren't at their best, lost key corner forward Josh Quinn to a suspected broken collar bone midway through the first half. He'd 3 points from play at that stage. Charleville had great success with Danny O'Flynn(who is still senior standard) and Jamie Coughlan in full forward line. Killan Cagney was very good at midfield but went off with the above mentioned injury.
Colin O'Brien was flawless from placed balls and chipped in with a few from play. A late change to the Gaels line up saw young Darren Fehan start full forward and he struck 2-4 from play.
Gaels through to the quarter finals for the first time in years. Without Josh Quinn they might lack the fire power to go all the way but for the first time in years there's a feel good factor with the club.

 

[HighHorse]

Result from Ballyhea.
Liscarroll Churchtown Gaels 3-23
Charleville 4-16 (don't quote me on this then turned off the scoreboard immediately)
First things first. Ciaran O'Regan has no concern for player welfare at all. Charleville had a player who was blatantly in distress on his own 65 and O'Regan was refusing to allow the medical teams deal with him. Wouldn't stop the game either. My club are notorious for giving abuse to referees and I try bite my tongue but he was genuinely an embarrassment tonight. Completely up his own arse.
Gaels weren't at their best, lost key corner forward Josh Quinn to a suspected broken collar bone midway through the first half. He'd 3 points from play at that stage. Charleville had great success with Danny O'Flynn(who is still senior standard) and Jamie Coughlan in full forward line. Killan Cagney was very good at midfield but went off with the above mentioned injury.
Colin O'Brien was flawless from placed balls and chipped in with a few from play. A late change to the Gaels line up saw young Darren Fehan start full forward and he struck 2-4 from play.
Gaels through to the quarter finals for the first time in years. Without Josh Quinn they might lack the fire power to go all the way but for the first time in years there's a feel good factor with the club.

Not defending the lad but think you’re being a bit harsh there HG!

And I say this because I could hear that conversation on the pitch, he had no problem with the physio treating them but wasn’t stopping time because it wasn’t head injury or serious injury which I’m sure is the rule anyway. You can’t just take the helmet off and expect time to be stopped when it’s time wasting. Not sure where you were located but over where I was, he wasn’t any bit seriously injured IMO!

Good game I though but it was really the Colin O’Brien show along with Sean Killeen. Killeen hopefully will get looked at for Cork at some grade. Top player. Quarters in Avondhu look fairly tasty now! Charleville looked very young, they may come again next year.

 

[North Cork Star]

I thought it was a good hard game of hurling tonight between Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels and Charleville. Ciarán O' Regan lets the game flow which is important if we want to compete with the likes of the Limerick and Kilkenny club championships. It was good hard hurling. Exactly what you want in championship hurling. There was one or two off-the-ball incidents but in fairness to the ref, he discussed the incidents with his umpires.

I was a little disappointed in Colin O' Brien. Excellent from frees but offered very little from play. The game by-passed him for the most part and he is poor in the air. He needs to be coached to catch a ball if he has any chance of making it at senior. He needs to up his workrate too. I think he's a fine player but needs to work on those things if he want to make it.

Youngster Darren Fehin scored 2-4 or 5 for LC Gaels and Daniel Relihan scored 1-5 from midfield. For Charleville, Danny O' Flynn was the standout performer at full forward scoring 2-3. What a servant he has been. One of the best club hurlers I've seen over the last decade or so. Their senior team could still do with him.

 

[HondaGaels]

I felt player welfare was no concern to him. Our own physio had issues with the way he spoke to her tonight. Cagney was clearly injured, I don't think it was time wasting and he was in a central area of the pitch, when play resumed he was in the way of play.
Colin damaged fingers in his catching hand against Ucc, he caught 10+ puckouts easily against Ballyhooly, to say he's poor in the air is very harsh. I do agree it wasn't his best night and I've always said the work rate needs to be upped. I thought Daniel Relihan was outstanding alright. His long range shooting is fantastic. He was the Gaels oldest starter tonight at 27, a good sign of the way the team is going. I didn't think it was Killeens best night either! Lost possession bursting out a few times. Thought Coleman beside him was outstanding as well. His brother Shane should be back from a broken collarbone in the next few weeks and he would be the first choice full forward.

 

[Patman360]

Muskerry last night:

Ballinora 2-18 Eire Og 1-9
Cloughduv 4-14 Aghabullogue 1-15

Ballinora through to the semis and Eire Og will be in a quarter final (we think), Cloughduv’s win also means Aghabullogue are out and Kilmichael go through to the knockouts. Kilmichael-Grenagh and Blarney-Donoughmore the other two games still to be played this weekend.

Hard to tell where Ballinora are at, haven’t really had to get going and the closest anyone has gotten to them so far is 12 points, all the same they’ve been very wasteful, and usually leave another 1-7 or so behind them in games which would be a worry against tougher opposition.

On a good track though, and in a few years should be more serious county contenders. Lot of strong young players who stand out at this grade like Byrne and Kingston, better depth than I’ve seen in a long time too, there’s about 25 or so lads fighting for starting spots nowadays and can come into the game without affecting the overall quality of the team.