Clonakilty CC target second Corn Ui Mhuiri win

CLONAKILTY Community College want to book their place in the last eight of the Corn Ui Mhuiri as soon as possible – and a victory against Mercy Mounthawk of Tralee next Wednesday would be just the boost they need.

Last year’s semi-finalists Clonakilty were too strong for St Fachtna’s (1-12 to 1-7) in their opening Group D game, while the Tralee school, Mercy Mounthawk, defeated Coláiste Choilm of Ballincollig, so both teams are in a strong position going into the second set of group matches next week.

‘Ideally, you want to get out of your group as soon as possible so another win next Wednesday would leave us in a good position with one more group game to go. The sooner we get enough points to advance to the quarters, the better,’ Clon CC manager Micheál O’Sullivan said.

‘We don’t know a whole lot about Mercy Mounthawk but they must be a good side to beat Coláiste Choilm, and we all know how strong Kerry clubs have been in the Corn Ui Mhuiri over the last few years.

‘You don’t get any soft games in the Corn Ui Mhuiri. Any team is capable of beating another and we saw that in the first round.’

This Clonakilty team can call on a number of last year’s side, including Cork minors David Lowney and Mark White, while they also have a number of the Clonakilty minor team that won the Premier 2 county championship final against Bantry last month.

Against Fachtna’s, Mark White (Clonakilty) and Sean Ryan (Bal) were strong in midfield, while the Clon trio of Ross Mannix, David Lowney and Sean O’Donoghue all caused the Skibbereen school plenty of problems. 

‘We had targeted that first game against St Fachtna’s. We really wanted that win in the first game because it sets you up for the rest of the group,’ manager O’Sullivan explained.

‘If you lose, you know that you have to win your next games, but the win against Fachtna’s has given us the ideal start.

‘We lost the first game in our group last year and we needed to win by so many points in our last game to get through. As it turned out, we ended up topping the group.

‘In the early rounds you want to make it as easy as possible for yourself, and ideally try to win the group so you get a better draw in the quarter-finals.’

Ahead of the Corn Ui Mhuiri clash, Clonakilty are expected to play a Simcox Cup quarter-final against Coachford College this Friday (November 6th) but at the time of print no venue or throw-in time was available. 

Clon’s final group game in the Corn Ui Mhuiri is against Coláiste Choilm of Ballincollig on November 25th.