I'm sure that for the 232 players who competed in Division 3 last season, and perhaps for a few diehard supporters as well, the 2016 title race went down as a classic. But for the 7500009768 neutrals in the world, it may just have passed us by. This is a well worn refrain by this column, but since sides stopped wanting to be promoted (ostensibly because it is too hard a season playing a level higher), and once the OCC agreed to let them, any excitement has disappeared from the third tier of Leinster cricket.
To be honest, it was only after researching this article that I found out who won the league. And so the predictions for 2017 will follow a similar pattern, making a guess at which order Merrion 2, Clontarf 2 and YMCA 2 will finish at the top, and which order the other five will come below them.
Malahide 2 had their best season in a long time in 2016, a welcome relief for a team with a proud history including five league titles. The downside of that is that it is the only season amongst the last six in which that position would have saved them from relegation from Division 3. So they need to at least match last season, and the rather obvious question is can they do it? Their record suggests not. They have lost more games than they have won against all their opponents, with the exception of Phoenix and Leinster with whom they share the spoils. If they could win matches against those two, and a few more besides, they will have a chance. But someone has to finish 8th, and it looks like Malahide are the most likely.
The bottom half of Division 3 looks very tight, and anyone of four or five could go down. Apologies to my fellow club members though, Leinster 2 may be the most likely of the rest. They have a combined record of 6-20 against the fancied teams in the league, and any hope must come from their excellent 7-1 record over Pembroke, and 4-2 over The Hills. But to put in bluntly, The Hills 2 look stronger this year, Pembroke are due a few wins, and that leaves Leinster having to beat the top sides to ensure safety. The last three seasons have seen them finish in the equivalent of 5th or 6th, and so in reality we are predicting a drop of just a place or two. Which means 7th.
Pembroke 2's record isn't the best on the planet. Their last league title was back in 1966, and they haven't threatened the title in recent years. But they have been massively consistent, and unbelievably they have only once been lower than 4th place (or the equivalent) in the last six seasons. So they look like a team that will be mid-table, and the only question is how they compare with The Hills 2 and Phoenix 2. They have shared their last two matches with Phoenix, and in fact are excellent against The Hills (5-1) so you would have thought that Pembroke should be higher? Well this one is a bit of a punt. It would be easy to predict Pembroke 4th again, but if The Hills perform, and Phoenix pull off a few surprises, Pembroke could slip down a bit. 6th place but no chance of relegation.
Phoenix 2's best finish if the last six years was back in 2015 - and even that wasn't good enough to prevent relegation. So history is against them, but as suggested above, to merely predict that Phoenix would be relegated would be too easy. Like other sides, they don't look to have much of a hope of beating the big three (at least not twice), but they have look good against Leinster (3-0) and Malahide (3-1) and have parity with Pembroke. Apart from that, this one is a bit of a shot in the dark. The realists will say Phoenix will go back down, but why not a bit of romanticism? 5th place.
Our prediction for The Hills 2 to finish in 4th is pretty much exclusively based on a few new players attracted to their 1sts, and the knock on effect that has on their 2nds. Daryl Calder and Tomas Rooney Murphy are match winners at this level, and having Mark and Joseph Clinton on a team is never a bad thing. We'll be honest enough to say that they will be a long way from third place, but in the tight battle for the bottom five, The Hills will come out on top.
Clontarf 2 just don't quite look good enough, and one stat backs that up. They haven't had a league title since 1993, but yet haven't been out of the top three (or equivalent) in the last three years. They can compete with Merrion 2 and YMCA 2, but will probably lose more than they will win. So without wasting any more ink, we think they will finish 3rd. As last year.
And as with Clontarf, Merrion 2's chances can be nicely summed up in one line. They haven't finished lower than the equivalent of 2nd in Division 3 since the 2012 season. And they haven't beaten YMCA 2 since 2013. So the runners up spot again for Merrion.
And that leaves YMCA 2, the 2014 and 2016 champions. They'll probably win again, but outside of YM, who will really cares if these teams all play each other again in 2018?