Harty Cup talking points: how best to paint a picture of the Gaelcholáiste Mhuire hurling revival?
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LET'S try this for size: Gaelcholáiste Mhuire have won as many Harty Cup matches in the past fortnight as they had in the previous six years.
The two victories - two and three-point wins over St Colman’s Fermoy and Blackwater Community School respectively - have propelled the Mon into a first Harty Cup quarter-final appearance since January, 2018.
That most recent last-eight appearance of almost seven years ago ended in a 21-point thumping at the hands of eventual champions Ardscoil Rís. The graph continued south from there. They finished winless and bottom of their group in two of the subsequent four Harty campaigns.
Last year was another Harty season where they finished bottom of their respective group. It was different, though, for the fact that they won their opener, lost their second outing by two points, and only missed out on progression to the preliminary quarter-finals by virtue of having scored less than Our Lady's Templemore.
Where the sliotar didn’t hop for them 12 months ago, it has on this occasion. Or rather, they’ve made it hop for them, as evidenced by their 10-in-a-row of white flags during a stunning come-from-behind win over Blackwater Community School on Wednesday.
The school’s run to last month’s Dean Ryan Cup decider (U17) offers further evidence of their reassertion on the Munster schools stage.
Helping to drive this reassertion from the sideline is a whole host of well-regarded Cork GAA figures. You have Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Tadhg Óg Murphy, Tomas Manning, Daire Connery, Donagh Seartan, and Eanna Desmond.
Ó hAilpín, as ever, was his brilliant articulate self following Wednesday's win in setting out the rebuilding job they are engaged in, a job of tapping back into the tradition that courses through the school corridors on the northside of Cork city.
“I always felt when the school was going through the doldrums in hurling, that the success was in the woodwork there somewhere. It is there in the halls of the school. You look at the pictures left and right, 19 Harty Cups, Dean Ryans on top of that, Jack Lynch went to the school, Tomás Mul, Tony Sullivan, the list goes on. It’s there and it is just tapping into it.
“We are gradually, bit by bit, getting it into the lads. When the blue and white are on song, there is no greater sight in Harty Cup hurling.”
On January 8, they’ll try and sing again.
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Last weekend was all about tallying. While nobody was elected on the TUS campus in Limerick on Wednesday, number-crunching was all around.
John the Baptist from Hospital and St. Flannan’s, Ennis hit a combined 29 wides over the 60-plus minutes of action.
Add in the 23 scores, the saves by the keepers, the shots which failed to reach the target or the ones referee pulled back for frees (they went wide too) and you have an incredible amount of efforts during a game of hurling. Less rucks and more shots.
At times, mentors do get frustrated with wayward attempts, but largely, both sets of players were encouraged to have a go, even in such tough conditions. The conclusion that Hospital hitting 16 wides didn’t help their chances is a facile one bt nio less true for all that. They had joy from these moments, winning frees, taking on their men and but for little bit of luck they could have had three green flags.
Players at this level are now so adept at taking on their men and shooting from simply anywhere, that it shouldn’t be surprising when they do sometimes miss.
St. Flannan’s, however, found their chief marksman, Harry Doherty, who registered three points from play, as well as a few wides. James Cullinan and Daniel Costelloe played deeper but were encouraged to take on shots. Maybe it's not such a surprise then to see on the sideline one of the game's top shoot-on-sight William Tells as their teacher and manager - Tony Kelly.
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There are obvious player-development benefits to the Harty Cup housing all the schools willing to have a crack at the top tier of Munster hurling.
The last three years have seen first-time winners, with fairy-tale successes for St Joseph’s, Tulla, and Cashel CS, two teams who hadn’t even been playing Harty hurling only two years prior to lifting the famous trophy.
The trade-off for an uneven number of teams is an asymmetric competition structure.
De La Salle were one of three sides to emerge from the group stage with a 100% record but because they did so in a three-team group, they didn’t secure automatic progression to January’s quarter-finals.
Instead, they were handed a short-straw preliminary quarter-final tie with fellow unbeaten side and reigning champions Nenagh CBS.
“The group of three probably worked out as a disadvantage for us with such a tough draw against Nenagh,” said manager Kevin Moran.
But having passed that test with a gritty three-point win, De La Salle look all the stronger contenders for the experience.
“Now we’re in a position where we’re looking forward to after Christmas,” continued Moran, “knowing that we’ve bigger tests to come but we’re right back up there.”