THERE will definitely be one Carbery club in the knockout stages of the Cork county hurling championships and there could be five – the reality will probably be somewhere in between.

BY JOHNNY CAROLAN

Barryroe go into their last Co-op SuperStores Premier JHC Group 3 game, against Mayfield in Belgooly on Saturday afternoon, with top spot already secured – even if they were to lose to the city side, they would have head-to-head advantage over the winners of the other match, between Argideen Rangers and St Finbarr’s.

Of course, the winners of Division 7 of the RedFM Hurling League will be keen to keep their momentum going by securing another win – all the more so given that it could yield the prize of an automatic semi-final spot.

Beyond the men in sky blue and navy, the other south-west outfits involved in the last weekend of hurling group action have hopes that carry varying degrees of strength. As mentioned, Argideen are in the same section and their game with the Barrs in Riverstick is essentially a quarter-final qualifier.

Both sides have lost to Barryroe and beaten Mayfield so it’s winner-take-all – an extra factor in the Timoleague side’s favour is the fact that they have a superior scoring difference and would go through with a draw.

Scoring difference could also come into play in Group 1 of the intermediate A championship, which houses both Bandon and Kilbrittain and concludes on Friday night.

After the pair drew with each other a fortnight ago, they both sit on three points and their destiny is in their own hands, but the fact that Aghada and Russell Rovers also finished tied means that there is a very delicate ecosystem at play.

If Bandon, who take on Russell Rovers in Páirc Uí Rinn, and Kilbrittain, who face off against Aghada in Cloughduv, match each other’s results, then scoring difference would decide their placings.

Currently, Kilbrittain have an 11-point advantage in that regard. Two Carbery wins or a pair of draws would send them through, but if the east Cork pair were to triumph then there would be a four-way tie on three points each, with the winning margins all-important.

An added wrinkle is that if one of Bandon or Kilbrittain were to lose with the other winning or drawing, the beaten side would be eliminated due to the head-to-head rule and the side that defeated them would move ahead to the quarter-finals.

For Newcestown in Group 3 of the Premier SHC, qualification is still a possibility, but defeats to Bride Rovers and Midleton mean that the spectre of the relegation play-off also looms ahead of their game with St Finbarr’s on Sunday afternoon.

A defeat would almost certainly condemn them to what the late Paudie Palmer christened the ‘Slán Leat Tournament’ while a draw could provide a hugely beneficial point in terms of avoidance.

For them to progress, a win of six points or more would be required, along with Blackrock beating Bride Rovers in the other game. In such a scenario, there would be a three-way tie for second place on two points each, Newcestown having the best scoring-difference.