Se\u00e1n \u00d3g \u00d3 hAilp\u00edn is expecting evolution rather than revolution from Ben O\u2019Connor\u2019s term as Cork hurling manager.<\/p>\n
While much talk has centred around promoting the Newtownshandrum man\u2019s U20 group, which delivered an All-Ireland in 2023, \u00d3 hAilp\u00edn feels the incumbents have the requisite quality to bring back the Liam MacCarthy Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think Ben will change an awful lot. That’s my personal view,\u201d said \u00d3 hAilpin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he’ll just tweak a few things. You’ll probably see one or two new names featuring next year, but the nucleus of guys that we’ve had for the last couple of years will be the same guys that we will be relying on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they are good enough. You don’t contest two All-Ireland finals, albeit we didn’t win it, but you don’t get there without having good calibre players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t see Ben doing wholesale changes, because I don’t think there needs to be wholesale changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ingredients and the substance is there. It’s not that you’re having to go to the grocery store and buy ingredients. They\u2019re there. It’s on the table, so it just needs another mix to make the cake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m sure Ben is trying to unlock what that missing ingredient is.\u201d \u00d3 hAilp\u00edn and O\u2019Connor are the last two Corkmen to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup, in 2005 and \u201804.<\/p>\n
The Na Piarsaigh stalwart is certain his former teammate is the right man to build upon those strong foundations, hailing O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u201cimpeccable\u201d playing and coaching CV.<\/p>\n
\u201cBen has been a born winner all his life. Like his standards… From training with him closely over the years, that’s our standard, Ben’s standards are up there,\u201d said \u00d3 hAilpin, gesturing towards the ceiling. \u201cHimself and Jerry, his brother, were freaks when it came to standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cBen will go about his business nice and quietly, like he did with his hurling career. He let his hurling do the talking over the years. He’ll be a man of few words, but behind closed doors, it’ll be all action, don’t you worry about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00d3 hAilp\u00edn feels the biggest hurdle is getting over the sting of those All-Ireland final defeats to Clare and Tipperary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game is nine-tenths between the two ears. It’s how they recover mentally, because physically, Cork have been one of the best conditioned teams the last couple of years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just how they can park the last two years. There are plenty of examples that they can leverage off. Teams that were knocking on the door and just fell short, but they were able to (win in the end).<\/p>\n
\u201cI get the feeling from talking to supporters on the ground that they see it as a new three-year cycle, so maybe expectations won’t be as high next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSport is funny. The times you think you deserve to win one, you don’t, and the times you think that you’re not going to, you come up trumps. Who knows?<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hope I live to see those players get retribution for the last two years, because I’ve been there losing All-Ireland finals. It’s a tough place to be, so hopefully they get their chance at retribution. Hopefully next year, but over the next few years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that regard, home games against Limerick and Clare will be vital to Leeside prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Munster Championship is going to tell a lot. It’s the lion\u2019s den of the hurling championship,\u201d said \u00d3 hAilp\u00edn.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive doesn’t go into three. Two teams will lose out. Each of the five teams will feel like they can get those three places, regardless of the order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’ll be looking at the home games. They\u2019re critical. If you get two wins out of those home games, that puts you in a strong position to go ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey played a challenge game recently against MTU, so it\u2019s up and running now, it’s alive, and the very best of luck to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00d3 hAilp\u00edn was speaking at the launch of the Dr Harty Cup history book, which includes his memories among 600 pages of insight and stories from the famous Munster schools competition.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Se\u00e1n \u00d3g \u00d3 hAilp\u00edn is expecting evolution rather than revolution from Ben O\u2019Connor\u2019s term as Cork hurling manager.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,1128,61,60,850,112],"class_list":["post-194508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hurling","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}