‘Standards in Cork have dropped across the board’, says Midleton's Seamus Murphy

The 98th edition of the Harty Cup throws in this afternoon, with Christians, in action against Kilmallock’s Coláiste Iósaef at Mallow (1.30pm), the first of the seven Cork colleges to make their bow.

Cork’s representation in the famed colleges hurling competition is somewhat ahead of Tipperary (five colleges), Limerick (four), Waterford (two) and Clare (one), and yet it is now 10 years since the Harty Cup last resided on Leeside.

St Colman’s Fermoy went as far as the semis last spring, Rochestown reached the decider in 2015, while Charleville CBS also progressed to the concluding afternoon of action in 2011. Silverware eluded the latter two and save for a couple more semi-final appearances, that’s been the lot of Cork colleges since Paudie O’Sullivan captained Midleton CBS to Harty glory in March of 2006. That wait will move into its 11th year during the Christmas break, usurping the barren spell in between North Mon’s 1919 and 1929 final wins.