Sars opt against calling up Barry O'Flynn for Munster semi against Feakle
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Cork’s Munster club hurling representatives, Sarsfields, have decided against bringing any U18 players into their panel for this Sunday’s provincial semi-final against Clare champions Feakle.
During the decoupling debate at Cork county board level last year, it was decided when raising the minor age grade from U17 to U18, in an attempt to help rural clubs struggling for numbers, that U18 players could line out in adult competitions up to Junior A level.
The most obvious example of this eligibility ceiling was the Cork U20 pair of Ben and Barry Walsh playing leading roles in Killeagh’s East Cork Junior A hurling success earlier this month. Killeagh’s flagship team operate at Senior A level, but the pair were precluded from playing at that grade this year because they are still U18.
The rule does not extend beyond Cork borders and so any club representing the county in Munster is free to add to their panel any U18 talents that had been deemed ineligible up to this point.
Cork Premier Junior football champions Kilmurry took advantage of such by adding 2023 Cork minors Denis O’Mullane and Seán O’Leary to their matchday panel for last Saturday’s Munster quarter-final win over Michael Cusack’s of Clare. Neither O’Mullane nor O’Leary featured off the bench in their first afternoon with the club’s county winning side, but that will likely change in the coming weeks.
Barry O’Flynn, who featured off the bench for the Cork U20 hurlers in their Munster semi-final and final outings earlier this year, would have been the standout choice for the Sars management to integrate into their set-up ahead of Sunday’s Munster semi-final against Feakle, but management have opted against adding any U18 faces to the panel.
“Barry would have been the obvious choice, but he is carrying an injury, so we said we’d leave it go. We did look at it, but he has a knee issue at the minute, so we said we’d leave him be,” said Sars boss Johnny Crowley.
“We thought about it, but the U21 championship is live in East Cork at the moment, so to be fair to them lads, I didn’t want to be bringing them through, they are training with the U21s at the minute, so we’ll leave them with them.”