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Cork county championships latest: last year's semi-finalist out.

Sunday’s Bank of Ireland Munster Junior Cup final between Young Munster and Cork Constitution (Musgrave Park, 2.30pm) has all the ingredients required to produce a thrilling spectacle.

Galbally caused the shock of the weekend as they beat Clanwilliam in the Bank of Ireland Munster Junior Cup.

With the crucial World Cup quarter-final taking place in Cardiff at lunch time on Sunday, there will be a curtailed fixture list in the Munster junior league this weekend. The games that are taking place are spread across the weekend; just four games are taking place in Division One, two in Division Two and three in Division Three.

Castlehaven 1-13 O’Donovan Rossa 1-10: Few clubs have mirrored the journey Castlehaven have made since their breakthrough senior title in 1989. The tiny parish with the big heart has reached another county final – this generation’s fourth in five seasons – and, it seems, their appetite for success remains undiminished.

Castlehaven are through to a fourth county final in five seasons after overcoming near-neighbours, O’Donovan Rossa, in an exciting semi-final at Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday.

More than 20 years later, the 1994 Cork SFC final between Castlehaven and O’Donovan Rossa remains steeped in local lore.

If the first weekend is anything to go by, this season’s Munster Junior League should be another captivating campaign. Some early favourites started off impressively and will be aiming to follow up their opening-day victories.

The Munster Junior Leagues get back under way this weekend and it should prove to be a captivating opening programme.

Cork U21 FC

Since winning Cork’s intermediate football championship in 2005, Carbery Rangers’ stock has risen gradually.

Cork SFC

Nothing or nobody lasts forever, but the premature taking of John Kerins and Michael McCarthy left a void their colleagues and family inevitably struggle with. But talking about them helps.

O’Donovan Rossa 2-15 Clonakilty 0-10: A West Cork senior football championship game usually produces plenty of fireworks, but this one at Rosscarbery yesterday fizzled out and faded quickly as O’Donovan Rossa crushed a hugely disappointing Clonakilty.

Bishopstown 2-14 O’Donovan Rossa 2-11: A dominant second-half performance was Bishopstown’s passport to the safety of the last 16 of the County SFC in Clonakilty yesterday.

The showpiece match of the season takes place this weekend as the Munster Junior Cup final pits the dominant junior club of the season, Clonmel, with the top seconds of a senior club, Shannon, at Thomond Park on Sunday (5pm).

It is the time of year when several clubs will be battling it out for silverware. Meanwhile, the province’s top Junior club, Clonmel, saw their hopes of going up to the Ulster Bank League suffer an serious blow by last weekend’s defeat to Dundalk.

Blackrock’s David Cashman lit up their RedFM SHL clash with St Finbarr’s on Saturday as the Rockies engineered a 16-point victory in Togher. 

Though this Corn Uí Mhuirí campaign has taken Clonakilty Community College into unchartered waters, the West Cork outfit are no strangers to the latter end of Munster campaigns.

The third annual Reardens Club All Star awards take place next Monday at 7.30pm, with 45 hurlers and 45 footballers in contention to be recognised for their excellence in the senior championships this season.

SFC quarter-final: Nemo Rangers 1-13 O’Donovan Rossa 1-8

O’Donovan Rossa 1-14 Douglas 1-06

Former Cork football stars Tony and Don Davis will watch their sons on opposite sides tomorrow as Douglas battle O’Donovan Rossa.

Heritage runs deep in Castlehaven.

O’Donovan Rossa 1-13 Dohenys 1-07

While O’Donovan Rossa captain Pat Gilmore is in his late 30s, this is just his fifth county SFC campaign with the club.

Given that it is a town renowned for football, it’s perhaps surprising that Macroom’s premier footballing academy is only lately enjoying fruitful times on the pitch.

Larry Tompkins can still feel the hairs on his neck spike as sunlight bathed the tunnel leading to the pitch and a wall of noise was just seconds away.

Two players have attracted plenty of attention in the run-up to Sunday’s Cork SFC final: Donncha O’Connor, Duhallow’s attacking trump card, is well known, while Castlehaven’s Brian Hurley pocketed 1-6 in the semi-final win over Carbery Rangers.

Duhallow 0-13 O’Donovan Rossa 0-07

O’Donovan Rossa 1-13 Avondhu 1-09

Cork Constitution made amends for last season’s defeat by Cashel in the final of the Munster Junior Cup with a deserved victory at Musgrave Park.

Last year’s county champions O’Donovan Rossa were knocked out at the Carbery U21AFC semi-final stage on Saturday at Leap.

WITH three games remaining in Division One of the Munster Junior League, all 14 sides are still in the hunt for the title or trying to avoid relegation.

THERE is little doubt about the highlight of this weekend’s action in the Munster Junior League as the clash of the top two, Richmond and Skibbereen, could already settle the destination of the title.