With plenty of action north and south over the weekend, there has been plenty of movement in our All Ireland rankings. Waringstown maintain their long standing number one spot after brushing aside the challenge of Fox Lodge in the Ulster Cup. The other Ulster Cup results also affected standings, with Civil Service North and Brigade swapping places in the top 10 after their win and loss respectively.
Merrion's win over The Hills was enough to push them back above YMCA, who lost to Pembroke (as well as beating Clontarf in the league). Merrion are now just behind Waringstown, and will overtake them should the NCU side slip up.
Further down CIYMS's excellent win over Strabane sees them jump four to 14th, although Strabane themselves were beneficiaries of Muckamore losing to Instonians (their win against lowly Bangor in the Challenge Cup didn't help much) and Railway losing to Malahide.
Clubs need to complete ten "matches" to qualify, and Cork County have reached that threshold. Due to older matches counting for less, that ten matches equates to approximately 18 matches over a rolling three year period. Three weeks ago Cork were ranked at 45, but since then they have beaten Phoenix and Dublin University, and in addition to beating Donemana in the Irish Senior Cup, marks a pretty good month. They are now at 32nd.
Dublin University are the other new entry. Due to the club only playing half a season, they don't normally play enough games to qualify. As it stands though, they have acheived that threshold, and come in at number 40, making them the lowest ranked Leinster side.
With June upon us, it is no harm to have a brief look at the sides who have raced up (or down) the rankings so far this season.
Going up
+5 Glendermott Five wins on the trot in the North West Championship, a win over Sion Mills in the Senior Cup and a win over Woodvale in the Ulster Shield. Only an Irish Senior Cup loss to The Hills has blotted their copybook. Up from 33 to 28
+5 Malahide If it wasn't for the massive disappointment of the National Cup bowl out loss to Ballyspallen, Malahide would have had the perfect start to 2014. Unbeaten in Division 2 after four matches, last weekend's win over Railway Union in the cup confirmed that they are a side going in the right direction - more than likely back to Division 1 for the first time since 2010
+5 Ardmore Perhaps not as good a start to the season as many had hoped or expected, but wins over Eglinton, and famously North County, have moved them from 34th to 29th
+4 CIYMS League wins over Ballymena, Lisburn and Instonians, along with a Challenge Cup win over North Down, and an Ulster Cup win over Strabane would be a good start for any club. Only the Irish Senior Cup loss to Coleraine has spoiled a perfect start.
Going down
-7 Drummond There have been two league wins for Drummond, but their National Cup loss to Bangor, along with three league losses and a Senior Cup loss to Strabane have meant a big fall in the rankings. Much of this has been due to Drummond's excellent 2013 and 2011 seasons dropping off their ranking
-6 Rush There has been little to cheer about down Rush way, with the only win this season being against Pembroke 2 - a result that doesn't count on these rankings.
-5 Dundrum (NCU) Not much has gone right for Dundrum (NCU) this season. Two losses in Section 1 of the league, they then lost to Bangor in the preliminary round of the Challenge Cup. Unfortunatelythey couldn't field a side against Civil Service in the National Cup, before also losing to Killyclooney in the Ulster Shield
-4 Railway Union Possibly a little harsh to rank Railway in this group. They started the season excellently by beating The Hills away, but since then have had a run of losses to YMCA, Pembroke, Clontarf and Malahide. The club have consistently had high rankings over the last ten years, and any run of losses would see their ranking fall