Fitzgibbon Cup gets underway

10 of the 13 competing teams in this years Fitzgibbon Cup will be action on Thursday afternoon at venues up and down the country.

Current holders of the trophy first played for 101 years ago UCC are unsurprisingly the favourites to lift the trophy again in March, and are been quoted just ahead of UCD and then Cork IT and UL.

This year’s competition promises to be one of the best ever.

The current economic climate has helped play a roll in this as many of the countries leading hurlers who have found themselves out of work in recent times have gone back to college in an attempt to regain a place in the working place and have decided to make themselves available to play in this years competition.

However, as the competition progresses and draws near its conclusion in early March with the National Hurling League having started it will be interested to see how many will play with the college side have played all their games, especially if they find themselves eliminated from it at an early stage.

The competition is once again to be played out for with four groups, one of four teams and the remaining three groups containing three teams each, from which two teams from each group will advance to the quarter finals of the competition.

Group one is made up of four sides, GMIT, UCC, NUIG and Mary Immaculate College.

The two Munster Colleges are the favourites to emerge from this group.

The final of this year’s competition will be hosted by GMIT and they will be very anxious to reach the last four of the competition.

Will they however is the big question? They did not contain the big name players that many of the other sides have. The management of the Galway – Mayo Institute of Technology team have a massive pool of players to choose from, mostly from Galway and Offaly, with six players from Clare, two from Mayo and one each from Limerick and Tipperary.

UCC have a formidable panel to choose from and it’s easy to see why they are the favourites to retain the trophy.

Conor Lehane from the Midleton Club is with some time now spoken off as one of the leading bright lights of the game. Throw in the likes of Lismore’s Padraig Prendergast, Killian Murphy from the Erin’s Own Club in Cork, William Egan from Kilbrin in Cork, Darragh Fives from Tourin and Waterford, Stephen Maher from Thurles Sarsfields and Brian O’Sullivan from Waterford club Ballygunner and its easy to see why the bookies fancy them again in 2012.

NUI Galway may not be the most fancied side with the bookies, but their chances cannot be ruled out too lightly.

They reached the Division 1 league quarter finals earlier in this academic year where they were beaten by DIT. They competed in the Leinster Provincial Board’s Walsh Cup recently, bowing out at the quarter final stages to a developmental Kilkenny side by two points.

They have a number of quality players including the likes of Joseph Cooney and Niall Burke who were part of the Galway panel that won the Leinster Final in 2012 against Kilkenny and who went on to contest the All-Ireland Final against the same opposition but lost out at the second attempt. Their leading player however could prove to be Limerick’s Kevin Downes.

Mary Immaculate College from Limerick may be the most fancied sides according to the bookies, but they could well be the side that could pull off what some might called a surprize or two along the way.

They have Eamon Cregan over the team so we can expect him to be shrude on the line if needs be, and he will be ably assisted by Timmy Hammersley and Gavin O’Mahony who played in this competition in recent years and will be able to impart their knowledge and experience to their charges. 

The Limerick College side have some excellent hurlers.  Conor Cooney was part of the Galway Panel that won last years Leinster Final and went so close to winning an All-Ireland final later in the year. Brian O’Halloran made his inter county debut under Davy Fitzgerald but suffered from Injuries afterwards which restricted somewhat the amount of time he got to play, but he has re-joined the Waterford panel this year and the Clashmore Club man is expected to make an impact and will be one of a number of players that could come in and take John Mullane’s shirt after his recent retirement.

The ability of Declan Hannon from the Adare club in Limerick is well noted with some time now as is that of Midleton’s Luke O’Farrell.

Group B, contains IT Carlow, Waterford IT and Cork IT. Anything other than seeing the two Munster sides advance to the knockout stages of the competition would be regarded as a shock.

While IT Carlow, are expected to test the two rivals, and could well include a number of players with some Inter county experience, they are not expected to advance.

WIT is expected to be very strong this year even if the bookies are not expecting them to reach the last four.

Former Wexford manager Colm Bonner is in charge of the Déise Students again this year and under his guidance in the past they have done well and no doubt he will be hoping his impressive run with them in the past will happen again.

He however will have to plan without two important players. Eoin Ryan from Offaly recently had surgery to correct a problem with his knee, while Pauric Mahony is not expected to feature till the quarter final stages of the competition at the earliest.

However, even with out them there is still plenty of ability within the squad. Stephen O’Keeffe is likely to start between the posts; Liam Lawlor is expected to line out in front of him as could Wayne Hutchinson. Others to line out with different Waterford teams in the recent past including Cormac Heffernan, Eoin Madigan, Gavin O’Brien, Jake Dillon Martin O’Neill and Noel Connors are expected to win places in the starting line up. Others to look out for on this years WIT panel include Eoin Murphy from Kilkenny, Wexford’s Harry Kehoe and Ciarán Haugh from Tipperary.

Cork IT reached the final last year where they lost out to fellow ‘Rebel City’ side UCC. What to expect from them this year is hard to know.

They are sure to include several members of last years panel but whether will challenge this year remains to be seen.

They failed to reach the latter stages of the league before Christmas. Like Carlow IT they may not have the household names that other colleges have but in the likes of Stephen Daniels and Ray Barry, they are sure to be there or there about come the last eight.

Group C should be pretty straight forward. DCU are jointed by fellow Dublin side UCD and Limerick side LIT, but it’s hard to see any outcome other than to see the latter two advance.

DCU are playing in the highest grade of third level education hurling for the third year. In the league before Christmas they did well to avoid relegation.

Since then however they have put in a lot of work, having received some training by former Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy and at the Curragh Army camp.

They have taken part in the Kehoe Cup recently where they beat Fingal having ten points to spare in the opening round of games but last weekend suffered a very heavy 3-17 to 1-3 defeat to Wicklow.

DCU are picking from players in counties, Dublin, Wexford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Carlow, Louth, Wicklow, Laois, Galway, Roscommon and Waterford.

Sean McGrath (Dublin), Padraig Breheny (Galway) and Donie Breathnach (Waterford) are all currently involved with Inter county senior set up, while Pat O’Carroll and Aidan Moran have been involved with under 21 teams in Kilkenny while JJ Lennon could feature for Fingal in the up coming National Hurling League.

UCD are the second favourites for this years competition and with Nicky English in their Management Team its easy to see why.

In Noel McGrath (Tipperary) the have a gem who should feature very heavily on the score board for them throughout the campaign.

In Kilkenny’s Cillian Buckley and Walter Murphy who was Man of the Match in last years replayed All-Ireland Final UCD have players that could prove to be match winners on the day as could Conor Allis from Limerick.

LIT may the fifth favourites to lift the famous trophy but have to be considered serious contenders.

Manager Davy Fitzgerald has guided the college to victory in the past and with former Galway manager Cyril Farrell and former Waterford Selector Pat Bennett involved in the selection team the Limerick college side will have a lot of know how on the line.

The panel whose better players include Clare’s Ronan Taffe and Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan are reported to be training and playing at least twice a week with some time and have shown to have a very committed group of players.

The main aim for the Limerick College is reported to be to get out of the group, which they should achieve with some considerable ease, and after this anything is possible.

In group D UL, St Pats/Mater Dei and DIT do battle.

The Limerick side should have enough in them to come out of this group with very little expected to separate the other two sides.

The Limerick side took part in the Waterford Crystal Cup recently and recorded a five point win over Waterford in the opening round of games at the WIT Campus outside Waterford City.

However since then they have gone out of the competition at the hands of Clare. The students held a slender lead at the break and for much of the second half were in contention, but a late surge in which the Banner men hit a brace of goals was enough to see them through.

Within the panel they have some considerable quality. Darach Honan (Clare), David Butler (Tipperary) Eamon Murphy (Waterford), Jonathan Glynn (Galway), Kieran Morris (Tipperary), Paddy Stapleton (Tipperary), Paul Kelly (Tipperary), Podge Collins (Clare), Seada Morey (Clare) and Shane Golden (Clare) are also expected to play vital parts for their side in this competition.

St Pat’s/Mater Dei at 50/1 are hardly expected to feature in the final shake up in this year’s competition.

They took part in the league competition before Christmas and found the going tough, often finding it difficult to put out its best fifteen due to club commitments and injuries.

However, since then some considerable amount of work has been done and expectations within the group has rose and will be hoping to make the last eight of the competition.

DIT has within their panel a considerable amount of players who have played underage hurling with Dublin in recent years. While Dublin may be best known as a football county, in the past few years considerable progress has been made in hurling with clubs from the capital doing well at Féile na nGael, and this has carried forward and Dublin have in recent years have won both the Dr Croke Cup (Secondary School’s ‘A’ All-Ireland Final) and have done well at Minor level in inter county hurling.

Liam Rushe (Dublin) will be their best known player, whom they may over rely on to see them through, especially if they get to the knockout stages of the championship.

The Dublin Students are hoping to be a competitive side in this year’s competition and will know if they can come out of the group, that on any given day, anything is possible.

 

Irish Daily Mail Fitzgibbon Cup Roll of Honor

College	Wins	Last Win
University College Cork	41	2012
University College Dublin	30	2001
National University of Galway	10	2010
Waterford Institute of Technology	8	2008
University of Limerick	4	2011
National University of Ireland Maynooth	2	1974
Limerick Institute of Technology	2	2007
Queens University Belfast	1	1953