Restore Cup to former glory

THE cup we runneth over. Once the pinnacle of every season, the Munster Senior Cup has become a parody of its past, openly mocking its own illustrious history.

Pre-All-Ireland League, clubs played friendlies and provincial league games but the success of their season hinged on their performance in the cup at the end of the season. The same situation applied in every province but it is fair to say the Munster Senior Cup carried a special aura.

There have been many classic cup finals over the years stretching back long before my own powers of recollection.However, I can clearly recall the deathly silence that enveloped a packed Musgrave Park in 1989 as Cork Con's Kenny Murphy slotted the winning kick against mighty Shannon or the inspired display of Sunday's Well which secured an unlikely win over Young Munster in 1994.

But my involvement in last weekend's cup quarter-final match, for Dolphin against Thomond, was a truly humiliating experience. It wasn't just the 34-15 losing scoreline it was seeing how far this once-great competition has fallen.

The kick-off had been pushed back to accommodate Ireland's engagement in Rome and this had a predictable affect on the attendance. Two men and a dog did show up but the dog fecked off after 20 minutes and was spotted in the clubhouse, drinking scotch and smoking cigars while watching reruns of the Dukes of Hazard.

Under-strength teams, no atmosphere it was more like a training run than a cup match.

Other clubs decided simply not to turn up on cup day with Highfield and junior side Nenagh both conceding their first round matches, unthinkable in the past.

Nenagh's non-participation was particularly tragic. I had the misfortune of being on the UCC side which was defeated by junior club Thurles in the 1993 cup. An army of Thurles fans travelled to Thomond that day to witness the historic scalping of a senior club but these days it is not considered a worthwhile exercise.

However, while there are a lot of people upset at the way the cup is being treated, one must still have sympathy for the club coaches. These guys, mostly full-time, stand or fall by their league performance and the cup does not figure. A couple of key injuries at this stage of the season could scupper an AIL campaign and many coaches simply aren't willing to take that risk.

IT is frustrating for those of us who think the cup should still mean something, but one can see where the coaches are coming from.So what can be done?

Well, in my opinion, there are two ways to save the cup. One, is run off the competition at the start of the season in the weeks immediately prior to the AIL. At that stage, the season is still vital and brimming with possibility, coaches are trying to find their best side and the games would be treated more seriously.

The other, more radical option, would be to introduce a national cup, with the first division sides entering in the later rounds. There would be cost and scheduling implications with this but it would carry a certain FA Cup-like glamour.

Giant-killing is always sexy, and imagine St Mary's travelling to Connemara to take on the All Blacks or Shannon and Trinity meeting beneath Oscar Wilde's old bedroom in College Park.

One thing is certain, something has to be done. the cup can no longer be an end of season irrelevance.