St Catherine’s put Munster title on the line as they try to rebound from last seasons county final loss;
Preview by Denis Hurley (The Echo)
When the Cork county championships were reconstituted for 2020, there were 12 clubs in the fifth tier, which was then known as the Co-op SuperStores Lower IHC.
Castlemartyr became the inaugural winners and then went on to claim the intermediate A title at the first attempt; however, none of the other 11 sides involved has had an upward move out of the grade.
Aside from the east Cork club, the other three champions at this level – renamed the Premier JHC in 2022 – were Lisgoold, Ballygiblin and Erin’s Own, all of whom had won the JAHC the year before.
It means that none of the first three beaten finalists – Russell Rovers in 2020, Kilbrittain in 2021 or Tracton in 2022 – had made it back to a decider. In fact, while Tracton did end up exiting the grade, it was downwards after relegation last year while Russell Rovers had to beat Grenagh in a play-off in 2021 to avoid that fate.
With the 2023 JAHC winners Nemo Rangers unable to maintain what had been a phenomenal run, this year’s Premier JHC champions will be one of the original 12 – and it will be one of the previous defeated finalists.
A year ago, St Catherine’s fell to Erin’s Own in the decider, the disappointment compounded by the lack of star attacker Daniel Mangan to injury. However, with the Caherlag side unable to compete in Munster, Catherine’s regrouped and bounced back to claim provincial honours before making it to the All-Ireland final.
They lost there to Kilkenny’s Tullogher-Rosbercon and, unfortunately, their next championship outing was also a defeat – the group-stage opener against Glen Rovers. It left little margin for error but the response has been strong, with wins over St Finbarr’s and Argideen Rangers sending Denis Walsh’s side into the knockout stages.
In the quarter-final, Rory Galvin scored 1-4 in the win over Milford while goalkeeper Eoin Davis landed five points, including the injury-time equaliser and winner. That set up a semi-final tie with Ballygarvan, where 12 points from Galvin were central to an 0-18 to 1-14 victory.
Catherine’s did reach the Lower IHC semi-finals in 2020 but they lost to Russell Rovers – that was the only year before this one where the two Imokilly clubs reached the knockouts.
The Ballycotton/Churchtown/Garryvoe/Shanagarry outfit impressed in the group stages, racking up an aggregate scoring difference of 30 in beating Milford, Douglas and Meelin.
After that, they had a six-week lay-off before facing Nemo Rangers in the semi-finals but they came through that on a 1-19 to 1-12 scoreline in Carrigtwohill, with Josh Beausang accounting for 1-11 of their total while Brian Hartnett and Kevin Moynihan also weighed in on the scoresheet.
Rovers will go in as slight favourites in this East Cork derby but Catherine’s will hope that they can draw upon the experience of playing in three finals inside the past year.
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