Challenge games at the best of times are never something to get too excited about and the fact the Cork hurlers lost to UCC in new team boss Ben O’Connor’s first outing in charge won’t cause too many sleepless nights.
A noon time start up the Dyke on the last Sunday of the year was the starting off point for a new managerial era on Leeside with UCC providing the opposition in the annual Canon O’Brien Cup encounter. That old ground off the Western Road is much loved by the older generation of Cork followers and a fine crowd turned up to cast their eye over a very experimental team sent out to play by O’Connor’s management team.
UCC are diligently preparing for another tilt at the Fitzgibbon Cup, a competition that they put huge store into every year and they entered the winners enclosure at the final whistle by the narrowest of margins. The scoreline, 2-18 to 2-17, might suggest that it was a decent game and at times it was but it never really ignited to any great extent.
At the same time it could be said that the 70-odd minutes provided a useful workout for both teams and both management teams would probably agree. And that is the object of the exercise in these type of games at this juncture in the year, they are all about learning bits and pieces about the new players and how well they might seize the opportunity presented to them.
Not one of the starting Cork 15 in last season’s All-Ireland loss to Tipperary featured and the emphasis was, as aforementioned, on the experimental.
Ben O’Connor is working off a panel of almost 50 and that will be lessened as the season develops. For those with ambitions of being involved in the league campaign and thereafter the provincial championship, these pre-season games are important.
It’s a case really of many being called but only a minority being chosen for future reference.
For the former Cork great, it could be said that alongside the rest of his management team they were trying to kill two birds with the one stone here. Quite a few of the UCC panel are in the extended Cork squad and it was a case of keeping an eye on how both sets of players performed.
Of the 4-35 shared between the teams, some of the scores were very well executed.
Barrs duo Ben Cunningham and Willie Buckley secured 1-13 between them of UCC’s final tally, Cunningham’s efforts from the placed ball very impressive while Buckley rifled over a few tasty gems as well. And it was his final delivery, a fine point that divided the sides at the end.
Cork had 11 different scorers over the course of the hour and the brace of goals they scored were finished with aplomb by Cian Darcy ans sub Shane Kingston. Jack Cahalane notched a quartet of points, good going for the young Barrs man and Sean Desmond and Brian O’Sullivan split the sticks with a couple of decent efforts.
Cork introduced Fr O’Neill’s clubman Paudie O’Sullivan into the fray at half-time and the young netminder proceeded to make a few fine stops.Â
Daire O’Leary and Ethan Twomey caught the eye a few times as well and there can be no doubt that the new Cork management have a wealth of good, young talent at their disposal.
Nobody expects wholesale changes from 2025 starting 15 but there will be a great desire to freshen things up at the same time.
A notable feature of the starting Cork attack was the fact that the three half-forwards, Cian Darcy, Colm McCarthy and Jack O’Connor were all from Sarsfields. How often has that happened before, an entire line from the same club?
The fact that there was never a whole pile between the teams made the proceedings more interesting and made the exercise all that bit more worthwhile.
So, the trophy to honour the memory of one of Cork’s greatest coaches will reside in that great hurling academy of UCC for the next 12 months and that’s perhaps fitting in itself after the vast contribution that he made in the third-level college.
The new Cork management is probably delighted that the pre-season competition, the Munster League resumes again shortly and that will provide them with another opportunity to run the rule over the new faces in the squad.
Clare and Limerick will be their opponents in the group of three with the top team playing a final against one from Tipperary, Waterford or Kerry.
One would expect some of the more experienced guard to return for those games before the real business of trying to defend the national league title begins.
The Fitzgibbon Cup, of course, provides the Cork management with an opportunity to look at the players involved in a more competitive environment when no quarter will be asked or given in those games. And the fact that the opening game is a local derby between UCC and MTU makes it all the better again when the bragging rights will be of paramount importance between the two Cork colleges.
There might be a school of thought which suggests that you cannot really judge a player so early in the year but that’s exactly the best time, seeing how they cope with sometimes difficult conditions and when great physicality is required.
Results, apart from the Fitzgibbon Cup are of no great relevance in these early-season games but, at the same time, an impression can be made and from the two squads of players that were on duty, the likes of another Barrs player Ciarán Doolin, goalkeeper Paudie O’Sullivan and Ballinora’s Shane Kingston did nothing wrong.
The imperative for all inter-county management teams at the beginning of a new season is to try and deepen the squad, provide a viable option in most positions and put pressure on those in possession of the jersey.
Overall, it would have to be said that it was a useful beginning for a new Cork manager, a man with a proven track record on the field of play and off it.
Over the coming weeks and months, it will be all about getting the balance right, using players in the positions where they are most comfortable in and having a strong spine down the middle from full-back out.
We will probably be that bit wiser in the aftermath of the two Munster League games and given their recent history, the Gaelic Grounds clash with Limerick should be that bit more interesting.
Putting down an early marker against one of your big rivals in the championship would not do any harm at all.