REGULAR readers will know that most of my weekends revolve around my sporting interests. It can be both a blessing and a curse. Last Sunday fell very much into the latter category – Carbery Rangers lost, Spurs lost and Cork footballers got crushed by Derry. Cork hurlers winning and Celtic snatching a draw late against Rangers were the only solace on a dreary, wet Sunday.

Writing this column on Monday, we seem to finally be getting some light at the end of a very wet tunnel, with a decent few days ahead. Maybe the weather gods are feeling sorry for us.

The Cork football squad flew out to Portugal this week for a four-day training camp. As luck would have it, my weather app tells me that they will get more rain than sun in their few days away. I’ve written about the overseas training camps before and how they are generally no picnic, however getting some warmth into your bones is one of the perks. It’s not the end of the world, but rain makes everything a little bit more taxing.

Cork will have boarded the flight on Tuesday with their spirits already dampened after the 20-point shellacking from Derry. The manner of the defeat was galling after Cork made a decent start, leading by three after 20 minutes before the tide began to turn. A goal from Lachlan Murray just before half time gave Derry a four-point advantage, and they had the benefit of the breeze for the second half. This was a tall order for a Cork side shorn of several key figures, however to lose the second half by 16 points would not have been on anyone’s bingo card.

The margin of the defeat was damaging on the double as Cork slipped from first to third in the Division 2 league table, equal on eight points with Meath and Derry but trailing in the scoring difference by 25 points and a massive 53 points respectively. We posited last week that Cork would need at least three points from the remaining three games to ensure promotion, however there is now the very real possibility that two more wins won’t even be enough and Cork could become the first team across all four leagues to miss out on promotion after six wins in a seven game league.

Cork have Kildare at home in Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday week before travelling to Tyrone for the final game. Imagine that Cork win both games, they will finish on 12 points. Twelve points would guarantee a spot in the top two in most seasons, however Cork will need someone else to do us a favour to avoid disappointment in the promotion stakes. Derry have a tricky fixture away to a resurgent Louth when action resumes, before a home game against Ulster rivals Cavan. Neither would be classed as easy games, but on current form no one in Division 2 looks capable of beating them. Derry will likely claim one promotion spot.

Meath will play Tyrone in Croke Park before travelling to Tullamore to face a doomed looking Offaly. In reality, Cork’s prospects of promotion may hinge entirely on Tyrone beating the Royals at Croke Park. The Red Hand county found some form in the second half of their clash with Offaly, winning by nine points in the end. There are mixed reports about whether Darragh Canavan will be available for the upcoming games; if he is unavailable then Meath’s odds for taking one of the promotion places will shorten considerably.

If Tyrone do beat Meath, a win for Cork against Kildare will likely see us promoted, assuming Derry finish in first on 12 points, as Cork will prevail on head to head if it is just Cork and Meath on ten points. Louth can also finish on ten points if they beat Derry and Kildare, but let’s discount that possibility for the moment because the picture is complicated enough as it is. For simplicity, think of it like this for next week – Cork to beat Kildare, Derry to beat Louth and Tyrone to beat Meath equals qualification for Cork, unless Derry were to somehow contrive to lose to Cavan. Okay, I’ll stop with the permutations now because I think we are all getting sore heads!

John Cleary and company can’t worry about anything at the moment other than claiming the win against Kildare when they return from their travels. Last Sunday in Celtic Park was bad. In fact, it was worse than that, however it shouldn’t be all doom and gloom for the travelling party. Cork have still won four out of five games in the league on the back of beating a decent Kerry team in the McGrath Cup final in Killarney, therefore there is a bulk of positive work for the squad to build on.

In recent years when Cork were packing their gear bags for these trips, the spectre of relegation hung menacingly over their heads. There is no prospect of that doomsday scenario this year. Kildare, after a positive start, have tumbled down the table and are in a battle with Cavan to see who avoids joining Offaly in Division 3 next year. Tyrone are not yet mathematically safe either, however it would take another unlikely set of results for this unthinkable scenario to come to pass. Next week, we will look in more detail at the Kildare game, and I promise to keep the speculation about possible permutations to a minimum!

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GAA Congress is often such a non-event that it is not unusual for delegates to literally be caught napping, however the 2026 version was far more eventful.

The two main stories centred on a protest that broke into the Croke Park function room hosting the event, much to the ire of GAA President Jarlath Burns, and the withdrawal of the motion to move the All-Ireland finals back into August. I am not against the finals being in August, but those couple of weeks and more would need to be given back to the clubs at the other end of the season.

The GAA now have a great chance to look at the league structures and potentially reduce the length of leagues, as I have suggested often in the past and an idea that was backed also recently by Galway footballer, Johnny Maher.

The excuse for retaining the extended league has always been about obligations to the sponsors, but maybe the GAA could use this opportunity to review the current deal with Allianz and look for better solutions all around. The motion to move the All-Irelands back into August, at least, is something that has strong support among sections of the media and traditionalist supporters, however was deeply unpopular with almost anyone with a strong involvement with their club teams across the country.

The GPA have now proposed that the inter-county season should be capped at a maximum of 30 weeks – this is welcome but it can still be reduced further in the future. If you include a two-week break at Christmas, the remaining time is 20 weeks to run off the club calendar. This is not enough.

Given the cost of running inter-county teams and the demands on the players and management team, the penny is dropping bit by bit that the inter-county season needs to be reigned in. The balance is better, but we are not there yet.

The dark days of complete fixture uncertainty and total disrespect of club players are thankfully behind us, but we must not rest on our laurels. Clubs and club players still deserve that little bit better, and we shouldn’t be afraid to demand it.

The clubs are the cornerstone of the GAA, the county game merely stands proud on its shoulders. I’m glad so many counties remembered that last week.