Cork Premier SHC: Timing and trajectory of graph giving off very positive vibes for Blackrock

John Cashman, right, of Blackrock, gathers possession ahead of team-mate Jamie Ryan and Jack Cahalane of St Finbarr’s during the Cork County Senior Club Hurling Championship Round 3 match at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last month. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Tomorrow at Páirc Uí Chaoimh Blackrock will contest a fourth Cork hurling semi-final in five years. Two of those three most recent semi-final appearances ended in victory, with the Rockies going all the way 11 months ago.

It’s a level of consistency matched only by city rivals Glen Rovers who, in the second of tomorrow’s semi-finals, will feature in the penultimate round of the Cork hurling championship for the sixth time in eight seasons and are chasing a third consecutive county final appearance.

The Rockies edged out the Glen in last year’s extra-time county final classic, finally making good on the wealth of underage talent that saw the club win four county minor championships between 2009 and 2013 and successive U21 titles in 2014 and 2015.

Against Midleton tomorrow afternoon, the goal is to bridge the 18-year gap to the last time the club achieved back-to-back county final appearances and to maintain the level of consistency shown since manager Fergal Ryan took the reins ahead of the 2016 season.

“The players are definitely to be applauded for their consistency,” begins 2020 county championship winning manager Ryan.

“There is no doubt that there was a lot of talk when we were winning minor and U21s as to why we weren’t challenging for the top spot at senior level. The players have definitely matured since then and I would like to think there is a good system in place for them with regard to us being in charge.

“Winning a couple of minors and U21s doesn’t guarantee you anything. You will only get three or four from any one team coming through to your top team in the club, so you still have a fall-off, which is an issue for our club and many others besides.

“We had some good underage teams in the last 10 years, we had a good standard, and we had a lot of guys who bought into wanting to play hurling. They are the guys you’d see down in the club six or seven days a week pucking around when they were younger. They give themselves a better opportunity of coming through to senior and challenging for titles.

“That’s what we’ve done the last couple of years, we’ve been competitive and consistent. We got one in the bag and hopefully if we can pull performances together there’ll be chances for this team this year and for the next couple of years because they are still quite young.” With their title defence commencing on a less than ideal note as Ryan’s charges went down to Erin Own’s on the opening weekend of action, the Rockies have not put a foot wrong since.

They ran up 3-22 and had 10 to spare over the Barrs in a must-win group fixture and followed this statement effort with another 10-point victory over Douglas at the quarter-final juncture.

Both the trajectory of their graph and their timing of hitting stride suggests theirs is a back-to-back assault that won’t be easily halted. The hunger absent against Erin’s Own has not since been lacking.

“People were saying we didn’t play well against Erin’s Own. It’s not that we didn’t play well, it’s that Erin’s Own played better and brought all the fight. We then had to win against Charleville and the Barrs, and maybe that is the maturity of the team, understanding that they had to put a performance together to win. We did that against Charleville and the Barrs. Douglas was a different game, but again, we got over the line.

“Midleton will pose a different challenge and our guys will have to put a performance together to beat them. We are hoping they can do that and that they are in the form to do that.”

The Magpies, back in the semi-final for the first time since 2018, on which occasion they overcame tomorrow’s opponents, have a balanced look to their line-up that is very similar to Blackrock.

“They have players like Conor Lehane and we have Alan Connolly who can do something out of nothing really. They have also got other players and we have other players who can step up if those two players aren’t bringing it for any reason. They have got danger around the pitch and I think we have danger too.

“Again, it’ll be down to the fight in any individual and how you can bring that collectively. It’s going to be a good game. Any of the four semi-finalists will fancy themselves to say they can reach a county final or win a county final. It’ll be down to who wants it that little bit more on Sunday. It’ll be small margins, as ever.”