AFTER a week off, I must start by offering my congratulations to the footballers of Barryroe, Kanturk, Uibh Laoire and Kilmurry for their recent championship successes.

For the record, I had a 50 percent success rate in my pre-season predictions, with Barryroe, Canovee and Uibh Laoire coming up trumps for me. The Barrs and Éire Óg were beaten finalists, while Adrigole fell short in another semi-final. A passing grade as opposed to first class honours, then, for 2026.

I must also quickly give my congratulations to the hurlers of Bandon and particularly to my cousin, Darren Crowley. Darren has given two decades of service to Bandon in both hurling and football and knocked over three points after being introduced as a first-half sub. His father, Paudie, was another great Bandon and Carbery hurler and enjoyed hearing the news from high up in the Himalayas. On top of the world in more ways than one!

Those games rounded off another season of club action in Cork and we were yet again provided with an abundance of excitement, entertainment and intrigue. We have now had seven seasons of the group format followed by knockout games system, and it is widely acknowledged to have been an outstanding success. More games for players and supporters, vastly improved fixture certainty, and competitive championships where every team is finding their appropriate level.

The days of clubs hanging on to senior status long after they stopped earning it are thankfully long gone.

There are some minor quibbles, as always, and one of the chief cause of complaint has been the loss of lustre for the Junior A championships, both divisional and county sections.

The Cork County Junior A Championship was traditionally one of the most difficult club competitions to win, probably in the entire country, and given that it was the third tier of football in the county, the winners would be within immediate touching distance of the top tier of senior. Perhaps five grades is one grade too many above our divisional junior championships?

The second complaint in the equation is our insistence in Cork on hamstringing our clubs' efforts at provincial and national level in the intermediate and junior grades. Having played in four Munster and three All-Ireland club campaigns myself, I can attest as much as anyone to the value of good runs in those competitions.

With Carbery Rangers, we won a Munster Junior and two Munster Intermediate club titles, as well as an All-Ireland Intermediate crown. Travelling all around Munster and Ireland with our club was a huge boon for football in the area, and the three years we enjoyed between 2003 and 2005 set the scene for winning ultimate honours in Cork in 2016.

The question needs to be asked: Are we holding our own clubs back now in these competitions because some clubs want to be able to say they are senior or intermediate even though they are operating in the second or fourth tiers in the county?

Actually, scratch that question mark, because there is no question about it. We are hampering our own teams’ chances for little reason other than trying to make certain competitions sound more prestigious and to spare the feelings of some clubs who don’t want to admit they aren’t senior or intermediate anymore. To quote Shakespeare: ‘What’s in a name?’

The grading system has been one of Cork’s main successes in recent years, but we can certainly look at little tweaks in order to continue the Cork club scene evolution.

As things stand, with no structural change required, we could just rename the competitions to show one Senior grade, one Intermediate, and Premier Junior grades 1, 2 and 3, and Cork would be immediately more competitive and successful in Munster and beyond.

In truth, Kanturk should be representing Cork in the intermediate championships, with Uibh Laoire competing in junior. Both would be expected to have a right good crack off those competitions.

My pitch would be to have one senior, one intermediate and two premier junior grades along current lines, with an expanded county junior A championship to bring back some of the prestige the competition used to enjoy. I’m not the first to suggest it needs to be looked at but in order to increase our chances of success for our clubs and the knock-on effect it can have on our county teams, it’s time someone brought a proposal to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Once more, though, to be absolutely clear, the changes in Cork in the recent decade have been overwhelmingly positive, and any changes would have to enacted through the appropriate democratic channels.

There will be many who argue not to fix what ain’t necessarily broken, but I would suggest modest changes could well be considered.

Back to matters on the pitch and Nemo Rangers comfortably accounted for Tipperary champions Loughmore-Castleiney in Páirc Uí Rinn last Sunday, 0-19 to 1-08. Nemo, 17 times Munster club champions, will now have a week’s break before facing Fr Casey’s from Limerick. With nine times winners Dr Crokes facing Waterford champions Rathgormack in the other semi-final, it very much looks like the two giants of Munster club football are on a collision course for the final.

Last weekend saw some great action and no little controversy in the famous Ulster club championships, with three of the four quarter-finals decided by a single point. In front of the RTÉ cameras, Crossmaglen came from 11 points down to pip Gowna of Cavan by a single point. The winning score was a booming two-pointer by Rian O’Neill after the award of a very debateable free.

Gowna were doubly annoyed as a number of their players approached the referee after the final whistle suggesting he had told him it would be the last kick of the game also, and they dropped deep believing the kick had to go directly over the bar. Having had the opposite experience at least once as a player, when I was told there was a minute left when kicking a late free only to have the whistle blown immediately on the kick-out, I know the people of Gowna will be annoyed for a long time to come. And no, I didn’t take anywhere near a full minute to take the free!

Crossmaglen won’t be unduly worried and they now go forward to meet Edendork of Tyrone, themselves winners by the minimum against Naomh Bríd. Scotstown of Monaghan needed extra-time to edge out O’Donovan Rossa, with Donegal champions St Eunan’s the only team to have any degree of comfort with a seven-point win over Erne Gaels in Enniskillen.

The Ulster club championship is a hell of a competition and is miles ahead of what is currently a relatively weak Munster equivalent.

In Connacht, Castlebar Mitchels travel to London to face Fulham Irish on Saturday and will expect to board the flight home looking ahead to a provincial final against either 2023 and 2025 All-Ireland runners-up St Brigid’s or Salthill-Knocknacarra. St Brigid’s remain favourites to claim another Connacht crown in their quest to finally scale the summit of club football, but both Sathill-Knocknacarra and, most likely, Castlebar Mitchels will fancy their chances to make them work very hard for the opportunity. Connaught may be much smaller than Ulster, but it is a competitive province all the same.

The Leinster competition is at the quarter-final stage, and the pick of the games sees Dublin champs Cuala face their Kildare neighbours, Sarsfields. Another game that catches my eye is Wolfe Tones versus An Tochar, given that the Meath club were one of the teams we faced on our journey all those years ago, beating us in an All-Ireland Junior final early in 2004.

The Downs versus Kilanerin-Ballyfad and Rathvilly against Portarlington are the remaining fixtures as the race to Croke Park continues. Plenty with chances, as they would say in the racing game.

Closer to home, Barryroe followed up their West Cork success with a seven-point victory against Castlemagner. The Light Blues are immediately back in action this weekend and will face a good test of their county credentials against Muskerry champions Aghinagh in Páirc Uí Rinn at 4pm on Sunday.

If they can overcome Bobby O’Dwyer's charges, Barryroe will face either Charleville or Douglas in the final.

I’d expect a good, close game of football in this one, and hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate. As ever, we are very glad to have these games to illuminate the dreary month of November. Good luck to all.