Corn Uí Mhuiri Talking Points: Cork-Kerry football gap, remember the name, and Mounthawk's midfield machine

You've heard of David Clifford? It's trowelling on the pressure to compare anything to the Fossa and Kerry wunderkind but there was a similar frisson of excitement watching a precocious 16-year-old from Dr Crokes in Tralee

DANGER HERE: St Brendan's flying inside forward Ben Kelliher is challenged by Eoin Moriarty of Tralee CBS in their Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-final at Austin Stack Park. Pic: Domnick Walsh

FOR the second January in succession, Kerry schools outnumber their Cork counterparts three-to-one in the Corn Uí Mhuirí semi-final line-up. For the second January in succession, and for the eighth season out of the last nine, Cork representation in the competition is likely to end at the semi-final juncture.

Three Cork schools - Hamilton High School Bandon, Patrician Academy Mallow, and St Francis College Rochestown - were involved in this week’s quarter-finals. Hammies were the sole Cork school to remain standing at the close of business. They were most impressive in dismissing PS Chorca Dhuibhne. Their reward is a semi-final outing against a back-to-back chasing Mounthawk side that boasts an average winning margin of 17 points.