Ballincollig defence can put shackles on Rangers

Until recently, it was easy enough to package these two teams in neatly-labelled boxes.

Carbery Rangers? Great going forward but no defence. Ballincollig? The opposite, plenty of good backs but not enough firepower. Both also carried the tag of never being able to deliver on sizeable amounts of potential.

This year, it has been different. Nobody could deny that these two have been the best teams in the championship as traditional notions have been confounded. Ballincollig’s scoring average is 17½ points against a concession rate of 11½. Carbery Rangers can better than on both counts, 21 points scored per game and just 9.8 allowed, though a 5-17 to 0-3 first-round win against Aghada is an outlier.