Preview: Take two for Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-final double-header

REFIXED: St. Brendan's College's Oran O'Neill going high for the ball in the Corn Uí Mhuirí at Banteer. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Banteer’s 4G pitch is the venue for both of today’s refixed Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-finals.

Last week’s cold snap meant postponements to the last-eight meetings of St Brendan’s College Killarney and Clonakilty Community College, and Patrician Academy Mallow and Coláiste na Sceilge.

Awaiting the winners of the Mallow-Coláiste na Sceilge tie, which has a 2.45pm start, are the students of Tralee CBS, while a date with Mercy Mounthawk is the prize for whoever comes out on top in the Sem-Clonakilty curtain-raiser (1pm).

With the semi-finals pencilled in for this weekend, the turnaround for the two schools still standing after events Tuesday in Banteer will be swift.

Each of the four in action this afternoon bring their own bit of motivation to the table. Clonakilty fell at this hurdle last year. It was Mounthawk who tripped them up. Manage to go one step further than 12 months ago and they’ll have a chance to exact revenge on the Tralee side.

St Brendan’s Killarney are also chasing revenge against Mounthawk after falling to them in the Kerry colleges O’Sullivan Cup final.

On the other side, newcomers Mallow are hunting a first semi-final appearance. Their opponents from Cahersiveen last visited the penultimate round 14 years ago in 2010.

Might Mallow mine an advantage from the fact that all three of their group games were played on astro surfaces, including their final group outing at today’s venue?

Coláiste na Sceilge, meanwhile, will today be playing their first game of the campaign on a 4G surface. The South Kerry school also has the much longer journey to navigate this morning.

As we noted in advance of the initial fixture, Emmet Daly and Ian O’Sullivan are the threats on the Coláiste na Sceilge side. The pair amassed 1-33 between them during the group phase. Impressively, their opponents have only leaked one goal in their three outings to date and none in their last two.

In the opening game, Clonakilty will have their hands full in attempting to curtail Sem sharpshooters Alex Hennigan and Callum Cronin. Supporting this duo will be Jamie Moynihan, Jack O’Sullivan, and Oisin Flemming.

If Clon are to spring a sizeable upset, you suspect it will be driven by the three lads - Darragh Gough, Olan O’Donovan, and Timothy Cullinane - who wore the red of Cork at minor level in recent years.

Mercy Mounthawk and Tralee CBS got two of the four Kerry schools over the line last week and into the semi-finals. Can the remaining two follow suit to put a very green and gold hue on the last-four line-up?