A hectic St Patrick’s weekend with sport and fun
St Patrick’s weekend was special with so much sport and fun. On St Patrick’s Day it was the Railway Cup in the old days, then replaced by the Club Finals on days past and now Croke and Hogan Cups for the secondary schools as the Kilkenny train keeps on rolling with St Kieran’s victorious over Presentation College Athenry on a score 3-13 to 0-12. We also had a day of parades and racing with the climax of an outstanding Cheltenham Festival.
Of course, there was an exodus from East Cork to the edge of the Cotswolds for the week and they had some craic. Again, Friday was the big one and what a day it proved to be with East Cork jockey, Lisgoold man Paul Townsend, storming clear on Galopin Des Champs to win the Gold Cup.
On Saturday we had a day of our own games plus the rugby again with Ireland going for the Grand Slam. It was a huge evening for many places as televisions rocked on walls and while Ireland were nervous and the ball handling could be better, they finally got going to take England 29 points to 19. Another East Cork connection here made it special too. This time the man of the match against Scotland was again outstanding on the wing against England, namely Mack Hansen.
Mack has a strong East Cork connections as his mother Diana O’Shea is from Castlemartyr. It is notable that Ireland played six games and won them all without receiving any card, yellow or red. This shows remarkable discipline and may be a lesson for us all.
Then Sunday was a day out for both Cork teams in hurling and football in the League. The hurlers drawing with Clare in Ennis and the footballers defeated by Louth in Ardee. Mixed results but looking forward to the championships confident of better days.
ALLIANZ HURLING LEAGUE IN ENNIS Clare 2-18 Cork 2-18
Well with the League ended for Clare they still found enough to manage a draw with an unbeaten Cork team. The sides were level on seven occasions and a draw was a fair result. The standard of play could not even be dressed as a rehearsal for the Munster Championship at the same venue on in late May. Cork manager Pat Ryan will be concerned about the fitness of our East Cork men, Seamus Harnedy and Declan Dalton, who were both withdrawn late in the opening period through injury. We wish the lads a speedy return to training.
Cork now heads to Kilkenny to take on the Cats in Nowlan Park in the Allianz League semi-final next Sunday at 4pm. This is another great test for Cork who have that winning appetite about them this year. Indeed, Cork are nicely placed for the League as their first championship is later that the others and on April 3rd. This game is at home versus Waterford on April 30th, then Tipperary on May 6th and back to Ennis in nine weeks’ time.
Hopes are high this year as Cork are showing great hurling, power, and a youthful panel coming from a winner’s enclosure in the past.
EAST CORK JUNIOR HURLING LEAGUES
Last weekend was a hurling one in East Cork. Carrig na bhFear lead the way in division one with four points from two games. Their latest victory was a 1-18 to 0-10 win over Carrigtwohill, and they controlled that one all the way, leading 1-7 to 0-5 at half-time.
Cloyne and Midleton lead the way in division two with four points from two games as they had resounding victories over Aghada and St Catherines in round two respectively.
Fr O Neills and Carrig na bhFear are topping division three with three points apiece as they played out a draw on 0-12 to 1-9 on Saturday in Aghavine where the pitch was in mighty condition and Jim Daly, Youghal was on the whistle.
Midleton are leading the way in division four as they had a 2-10 to 0-10 victory over Dungourney on Sunday. Incidentally Dungourney had a very good win over Cloughduv in the Red FM Intermediate Hurling League on last Saturday.
EAST CORK FIXTURES
The month of February was the driest in years, but March has brought some unpredictable weather and some heavy rain. Pitch availability is affected, and games have been cancelled. However, we are looking at better days ahead and the East Cork Board would appreciate if games were refixed before the next meeting on Wednesday, 22nd March as CCC will be reviewing all fixtures that evening.
EIGHT EXTRA GAMES DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANTS FOR CORK
Croke Park’s new games development funding model has led to a significant rise in funding Munster GAA accordingly they are recruiting twenty new games development administrators for the province. There will be eight of those assigned to Cork which is a major increase. This will mean greater interaction and time given to our clubs and schools. The increase in GDAs will allow them time to train up club volunteers and assist the juvenile coaches within the clubs.
SAFE CLUBS PROGRAM – IMOKILLY
Each Club in East Cork are now asked to appoint a Safe Club Leader, and form a small committee to promote and get the program moving within their clubs. Items of interest and vital to the success of the program are all health and safety issues, potential hazards, and control measures, preparation and/or review of the club health and safety statement, any recent incidents, claims and/or potential claims, grants, developments, funding, loans and borrowings.
THE GREEN PROGRAMME AND/ OR ANY SUSTAINABILITY IDEAS
Patrick O’Brien, Health and Safety officer of Croke Park will hold a ‘Teams’ support call with those who attended and the Safe Club leader from each club on Thursday, 30th March at 7pm. The link will be circulated.
Fit2trade will also have a specific GAA portal with an entire suite of online courses on health and safety specific to clubs, such as Manual Handling, Emergency First Aid, Fire Safety Awareness to mention some and various other matters and that link will be made available shortly. As outlined previously there will be a special awards evening at the end of the process. Also, there is a special page on the East Cork website on the Safe Club Programme in the information section.
SPECIAL CONVENTION ON AGE GRADES POSTPONED
A special county convention planned for Tuesday, 4th April where our clubs could vote on whether to decouple adult and juvenile competitions at U18 from 2024 is now postponed until later on this year.
This is following consultation between the CCB Executive and Croke Park’s Rules Advisory Committee and there may be a Special Congress later in 2023 which bring rules in line with Central Council policy and facilitate the Cork approach. The matter was debated at the last County Board Meeting, so we await developments.
SPONSORS
Thanks to our main sponsors East Cork Oil and Michael O’Connor Motor Factors.