Absence of key players hits Cork’s cup hopes
The home side will be without All-Stars Ger Spillane and Nicholas Murphy as well as James Masters, who travelled to Dubai after receiving a late call-up to join the touring party. 2005 All-Star Graham Canty also travelled.
Canty, out of action since damaging a cruciate ligament in last season’s Munster final against Kerry, is back in light training but is not expected to play until the latter stages of the National League
According to team manager Billy Morgan, Cork would like to win tonight’s final but he added: “It will not be the be-all or end-all if we lose, particularly as we will be short a number of our more established players.”
Cork qualified for the final with big victories over CIT and UL, scoring 6-32, while Limerick struggled in their quarter and semi-final games.
Mickey Ned O’Sullivan’s team, without the influential Stephen Kelly, were taken to extra-time by Tipperary and just managed to hold on against UCC last weekend.
But Morgan is expecting a tough challenge from the Shannonsiders. “Limerick are always strong, particularly so over the past number of years and they can be expected to throw down the gauntlet to us,” he said.
The Cork manager is pleased with his side’s early season form.
“They are training well and there is a good buzz in the camp,” he said.
“It would be nice to put some silverware on the victory table before the commencement of the league next weekend but I believe Limerick will be very difficult to beat.”
The game starts at 7.30pm and extra time, if necessary, will be played.
Tomorrow, Laois and Dublin contest the O’Byrne Cup final in Tullamore and although their rivalry of recent years ensures the game won’t lack spice, neither camp will go into mourning in the event of defeat.
Although Laois won the event two years ago, Mick O’Dwyer never took it too seriously.
Dublin declined the invitation to compete for years and when they finally returned to the fold in the early 1990s they lost a number of players to suspension after an ugly brawl — against tomorrow’s opponents.
This year’s decider is unlikely to see a repeat.
For Paul Caffrey and Liam Kearns, the competition has already served its purpose. New players have been blooded, returning vets have eased back into action and the rigours of pre-season training have been offset by regular competitive action.
“We have used around 30 players so far in the tournament so it has been of great help to us,” said Kearns.
“It is the perfect competition for that. It doesn’t really matter what the outcome is. It won’t have any bearing on what happens in the championship because both teams will be completely different by then.”
Earlier this month, Kildare manager John Crofton called for the competition to be scrapped and slammed the shield section.
A fortnight later he was waxing lyrical about the excellent preparation their shield game against Longford offered for the NFL opener against Armagh.
Such conflicting opinions have long been the norm whether the competition in question was the O’Byrne Cup, McGrath Cup, Dr McKenna Cup or FBD League. Some managers love them. Some hate them. Some, like Crofton, feel every which way about them.
From day one however, they have served a worthy purpose. Called the Accident Tournaments, then and now, all the proceeds from the O’Byrne and Walsh Cups are directed towards the players’ welfare funds and the dividends have been dispersed regularly but quietly down through the years.
Named after Matt O’Byrne, a former Wicklow representative of the Leinster and Central Council whose shock of white hair and spectacles made him resemble Arthur Griffith, the Leinster competition has always lived in the margins.
The key that unlocked the event’s undiscovered potential was turned less than a decade ago when Leinster Council secretary Michael Delaney suggested running the event off in consecutive weeks in the month of January.
“The big thing that got the O’Byrne Cup to where it is now was that decision,” said Leinster Council chairman Liam O’Neill. “At the final in Mullingar that year there was a crowd of over 14,000 when Longford beat Westmeath.”
At the time the O’Byrne Cup was still shoehorned in between the pre- and post-Christmas legs of the National League but the NFL’s switch to a February start has made the January format the perfect launch pad for the season.
With colleges bumping the number of entrants up to 16 and the advent of the shield guaranteeing 12 of the participants at least three games, the competition has gone from strength to strength.
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