College dominate Rossa rivals in early encounters | Stephen Barry
There was an early opportunity to see UCC’s 2013 Fitzgibbon and Sigerson contenders under the floodlights of the CIT sports grounds as they squared up to their crosstown rivals. Indeed the senior hurler’s win, 4-18 to 1-15 on Thursday the 8th, and the footballer’s 3-8 to 1-11 victory a day previous reflected a wider UCC dominance over CIT across the grades; both of UCC’s fresher teams secured victories over the Rossa Avenue outfit in recent times.And while these Higher Education League successes could be a sign of good things to come in 2013, they were followed by immediate quarter-final defeats in the case of both senior sides.Ultimately it is far too early in the season to read too much into such encounters; UCC did the senior league double last season but, while the hurlers went from strength to strength to Fitzgibbon success, the footballers slumped to semi-final defeat.
Perhaps the clearest inference we can make is that UCC’s hurlers seem to be forging ahead of CIT after their memorable Centenary Fitzgibbon decider. On the day, CIT seemed on the way to ending their Fitzgibbon hoodoo before a pair of late goals out of nowhere turned the tie on its head. CIT’s golden generation of hurlers, the first in the Institute’s short history, have also spurned chances to win their first major trophy in the Cork County Championship, losing the 2011 final when heavy favourites and falling at the semi-final stage again this year. Since then, the likes of Colin Fennelly, Paudie O’Sullivan, Stephen McDonnell, Stephen White and Tommy Quaid have moved away from Rossa Avenue.Some personnel have left UCC too since the Mardyke showdown between the sides last March, but UCC look the better able to cope with this off the back of a third successive Fresher All-Ireland title. Of that team, Damien Cahalane will return to college action after club duty with Castlehaven, and Conor Lehane will have more of an influence across sixty minutes than the recent league fixture, where injury forced his withdrawal after 23 minutes against CIT.Either side of Lehane’s substitution, CIT amassed five points without reply to move clear of UCC with Darren McCarthy and Cormac Murphy executing brilliant blocks to limit the deficit to five, 1-9 to 0-7. At this stage it looked like CIT were going to ease away from the visitors, but Lehane’s injury forced Mark Sugrue to wing-forward and it was from here that he made a lung-bursting run which ended with him being fed with the sliotar and blasting to the net. At the half UCC had the gap limited to a point in a game which both sides needed to win to ensure their passage through the group stages.However UCC exhibited a huge improvement after the break, dominating CIT in all positions and effectively ending the tie after 43 minutes by which time UCC led by 3-14 to 1-11, after successive goals from Paul Haughney and Seamus Harnedy. Haughney was the outstanding player for UCC and he kept going until the end, scoring UCC’s final three points for a total of 1-7. His goal was a peach and an early point was the score of the game.However while the comprehensive victory against CIT signalled that UCC will be a force to be reckoned with for the year ahead, they followed up on Thursday last with a 2-18 to 0-18 loss to UCD in Belfield, having trailed by two points at the interval.In the football, UCC again had the upper hand on CIT, although this game was more of a close run thing. UCC were wasteful early on but recovered to lead by 2-5 to 0-5 by the thirtieth minute. The first goal came after a fantastic charge from Tom Clancy who played in Paul Geaney who in turn handpassed across to Luke Connolly to touch the ball to the net. Then it was Clancy who netted the second; another run from the wing-back and a quick one-two with Stephen O’Brien put Clancy clean through. He wriggled past the CIT keeper to finish to the net.The Institute did make things interesting as they levelled twice in the second half, with Daniel Daly goaling for the hosts. However Jamie O’Sullivan, on the opposite wing from Clancy in the defence, came up the field to seal the win; initially Peter Acheson wasted the goal chance before recovering to feed O’Sullivan who rolled the ball home.In the subsequent quarter-final against Queens, UCC led by four as they finished their day’s scoring. However the Belfastmen scored four points, three from Derry’s James Kielt, to level before Caolán Rafferty goaled for a 1-9 to 0-9 Queens win.The fresher footballers who defeated CIT 1-20 to 1-13 in their final group game came unstuck against DCU last Tuesday. Having seen off UUJ after extra time in the quarter-final, they came out the wrong side of a 1-13 to 1-11 scoreline against the Dubs.And with crucial defeats for the ladies footballers and camogie teams, the fresher hurlers are the foremost UCC side flying the crossbones in the league knockout stages, after a 3-13 to 2-13 win, again against CIT, secured their place in the top two of their group.Meanwhile free-taking shoot-outs could decide the destination of this year’s Fitzgibbon and Sigerson cups. This comes with the introduction of a measure designed to ensure that this year’s college competitions end on their finals weekend. Due to the demand for college players after these dates, there are no possible replay dates available for the semi-finals and finals, should there be a tie.If a semi-final or final was now to end level, 10 minutes each way of extra time would be played, and then 5 minutes each way in the case of the teams still being even. The 5 minutes each way would be repeated once more before the shoot-out would be called on to separate the sides. This would feature five unopposed frees by five different freetakers, followed by sudden death. These frees would be from 45 metres out in football and the 65 metre line in hurling.