{"id":271851,"date":"2026-01-30T11:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/271851\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:55:09","slug":"ben-oconnor-welcomes-increase-in-selection-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/271851\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben O’Connor welcomes increase in selection options"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cork are likely to shuffle their pack again for tomorrow night\u2019s Allianz HL Division 1A clash with Galway at Pearse Stadium, with Ben O\u2019Connor welcoming the competition for places.<\/p>\n

On the injury front, the return of experienced players who missed Sunday\u2019s opening-round win at home to Waterford gives O\u2019Connor and his management further options as they target a second victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like we’ll have Tim O\u2019Mahony, Brian Hayes and S\u00e9amie Harnedy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other boys [Ciar\u00e1n Joyce and Shane Kingston] are back doing training, all right but they won’t be available for this weekend.\u201d <\/p>\n

For the 14-point win over the D\u00e9ise at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh, <\/p>\n

\u201cSure look, they all think they should be playing,\u201d he says, \u201cso this is the chance. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere’ll be some fellas ruled out at the weekend, fellas will get their chance and then it’s to take the chance when you get it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the way it is and the boys know that, that there will be changes and they know that they’ll get a chance and it’s up to them to put their hand up and say, \u2018Look, I’m good enough at this level.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what keeps things going in training then as well. Every fella knows that they’re in with a fair chance, they know they’ll all get game-time and we’ll be looking at form. That’s how we’ll be picking teams going forward, it will be on form.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the first few league games, there\u2019ll be fellas rested and things but, give us three or four league games and it\u2019ll all be picked on form and after that, we’ll be coming on for championship, so it’ll be whoever’s on form at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Cormac O’Brien tackles Shane Bennett of Waterford. Picture: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Another fact in this early part of the league is that it is the second of three consecutive weekends where Cork and the other hurling counties are in action.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the most compacted part of the season that they will face \u2013 allied to the fact that the Fitzgibbon Cup knockout stages have commenced.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start, we decided with Ian Jones that we were going to keep our set nights, whether we played league on Saturday or Sunday, rather than changing during the week,\u201d O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept our set nights for training, just so fellas could have a routine, and I think that helps them as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven during the Championship, you’re not going to get three games in the space of 13 days, so this is a little bit different, plus you have Fitzgibbon thrown into the middle of it, whereas during the championship, it\u2019s all focused on the Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, look, it’s only about managing what the boys are at at the moment. In fairness, Ian and all the lads in the backroom are well on top of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll be trying to mind fellas as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Brian Hayes could be back for the Galway game. PictureL Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

While Cork won on their last trip to Salthill \u2013 coincidentally, Pat Ryan\u2019s second league match in charge, back in 2023 \u2013 it hasn\u2019t always been a happy hunting ground.<\/p>\n

Given that the Tribesmen lost their opener away to All-Ireland champions Tipperary, O\u2019Connor expects a strong response but, equally, that represents a challenge that he and the team are looking forward to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a hard place to go and win all the time,\u201d he says, \u201cbut look, we’re looking forward to it. Fellas are in good form, there’s a good buzz around the thing, so we want to keep that going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s different surrounds and the home team does get a boost from having home support. I’m sure we’ll still have a good few above there on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going up to win the game and that’s the way we’ll be treating it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork are likely to shuffle their pack again for tomorrow night\u2019s Allianz HL Division 1A clash with Galway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-271851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271851","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=271851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}