In-demand students out to dethrone champs

ALL WEEK, John Grainger has been making the calls in an effort to ensure the band of UCC hurlers will assemble in Midleton tomorrow night for the quarter-final of the Cork County SHC.

Predictably, the college manager has had a difficult task. Third-level hurlers are permanently in demand, their schedules piled high with fixtures and teams requesting their services.

So when UCC take to the field in Clonmult Park tomorrow night, some of their members will already have been through the rigours of competitive action. This afternoon, Aidan Harte plays midfield for the Galway U21 hurlers in Thurles, while Michael Cahill plays left half-back for the Tipperary U21 hurlers in Mullingar.

Stephen Moylan faces a City U21 championship game for Douglas tonight, while defender Aidan Quilligan is in action for Sixmilebridge in the Clare SHC. Such is the way of life in UCC GAA, according to Grainger.

“That’s the way it goes for us and we’re just used to it at this stage. If we were to look for postponements to games, we’d never get them played. We’ll be without Jamie Nagle (Waterford) and Michael Rice (Kilkenny) as well, due to the All-Ireland final.

“We’re not going to try and stop lads playing in an All-Ireland. We’ve a great relationship with county boards and we try to facilitate players.”

Still, for all the influx of players from other counties, UCC’s side will be a largely local unit tomorrow night.

There’s plenty of talent and representative experience in the likes of Anthony Nash, Darragh McSweeney, Joe Jordan and John Halbert. And then there are the individuals from the lowly junior clubs who get the chance to ply their wares amongst the senior club elite in Cork.

Kevin Hartnett from Russell Rovers is an old hand at this stage, but for the likes of Conor O’Driscoll (Oliver Plunketts) and Thomas Mullane (Passage) these games are important.

“It’s super for those players,” agrees Grainger. “They’re coming from small junior clubs but are getting a chance to play in the Cork senior hurling championship. It all helps bring them on. Thomas Mullane was on the Cork U21 panel this year, and he was the first guy in a long time from Passage to play inter-county hurling.

“I think we give those guys a chance to play at a high level. People say to me a lot that they really like the college style of hurling. We’re basically an U21 team, and we do bring something to the county championship.”

The task ahead of them to make further progress is an arduous one. Erins Own are in the midst of a drive towards a third consecutive county title, and have a team packed with stars. UCC’s form in the county championship has been erratic in recent years, but they managed the not so inconsiderable feat of knocking out the then county champions Na Piarsaigh in the 2005 county quarter-final. Could lightning strike twice?

“I don’t know,” admits Grainger. “The college record has not bee the best of late. Erins Own has a huge number of top quality players and they will make it very tough for us to advance. We’ll give it our best and try to make it very competitive. But they are a very experienced team.”