![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4911005_1_articleinlinemobile_DKE100123Hurling004.jpg\" "\\"")
Cork’s Luke Meade gets his pass away under pressure from UCC’s Conor Cahalane during the Canon O’Brien Cup clash at the Mardyke in January 2023. Picture: David Keane<\/p>\nAs opening games go, Cork hurling manager Ben O\u2019Connor could scarcely have wished for better than Sunday\u2019s Canon O\u2019Brien Cup clash with UCC.<\/p>\n
The game at the Mardyke (12 noon) will offer supporters the first chance to see a Cork team in action under new boss O\u2019Connor \u2013 while the UCC team will also have a number of players involved that the Newtownshandrum native will be assessing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ideal,\u201d O\u2019Connor says, \u201cbecause I think we\u2019ll have eight or nine on the UCC team and we\u2019ll be able to get 24, 25 on the field ourselves then as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cStraightaway, you\u2019ll have upwards of 30 fellas to watch in one game. That\u2019s where you\u2019re going to judge fellas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great at the moment, you see the effort fellas are putting in in training with the strength and conditioning and everything, but, at the end of the day, they have to be able to put the ball over the bar or in the net and that’s where they’ll be judged.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor and his management team are operating off a big panel at the moment as they seek to cast the net wide. January is a busy month as clashes with Limerick and Clare in the Co-op SuperStores Munster Hurling League are also on the calendar and a number of players have commitments with their college sides in the Fitzgibbon Cup.<\/p>\n
To that end, O\u2019Connor is keen to keep things fluid rather than rushing to any quick judgements.<\/p>\n
Cork’s Luke Meade gets his pass away under pressure from UCC’s Conor Cahalane during the Canon O’Brien Cup clash at the Mardyke in January 2023. Picture: David Keane<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve a big panel at the moment,\u201d he says, \u201cand we\u2019re bringing in fellas for those games too to add to it, to keep the competition high.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrown into the mix, after the Canon O’Brien, with the Munster league games, there’s Fitzgibbon inside in the middle of it as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have nine or ten fellas involved in the colleges; if you’re missing that many from training or from the matches, that kind of holds you back on what you can do as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have fellas that can come in and play the matches and, as I said to all the lads, the panel is open. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust because a fella is on the panel now doesn’t mean he’ll be on it in four weeks’ time, with injuries or lack or form and there\u2019s plenty fellas chomping at the bit to get in.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery fella knows that, \u2018Look, if I\u2019m not doing the business here, there’s a chance I’ll be left go and there’ll be someone else in instead of me – and there’s a chance that they could call me back in again after.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI just don’t like the idea of picking a panel and saying, \u2018That’s it so lads, for the year.\u2019 Fellas drop in and out of form and everybody knows that when they come in \u2013 they\u2019re there once they\u2019re performing and if performances drop, things will have to be done about that. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re just hoping that everyone that we do pick and bring in will keep their form for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the UCC encounter, Cork are away to Limerick in the Munster league on Wednesday, January 7 – UCC play MTU Cork in the Fitz the following night – before taking on Clare in Mallow on Monday, January 12.<\/p>\n
Admission to the game on Sunday is free, but attendees are asked to donate what they can. Part of the proceeds go to the charity Rise & Shine, who take additional needs children on holiday and provide respite care to their families, as well as Stand 4 F\u00e9ile, set up to support F\u00e9ile O\u2019Sullivan, the Allihies teenager who sustained life-changing injuries in a farm accident earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As opening games go, Cork hurling manager Ben O\u2019Connor could scarcely have wished for better than Sunday\u2019s Canon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-209531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209531","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=209531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}