![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4981961_1_articleinlinemobile_3337420.jpg\" "\\"Robert")
Robert Downey signs autographs after the win over Galway – he will also be absent on Sunday. Picture: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nCork have shuffled their pack in the national hurling league so far \u2013 and, even if management were inclined to change their approach on the return to action, their hand would be forced.<\/p>\n
The Rebels, still top of the Division 1A table despite not playing last weekend, travel to UPMC Nowlan Park on Sunday to take on Kilkenny (3.15pm).<\/p>\n
For their second league game, away to Galway, there were four alterations from the victory over Waterford and then six between the Galway and Tipperary games, with ten All-Ireland final starters in the line-up for each outing.<\/p>\n
This weekend, the options are reduced slightly due to injuries, but manager Ben O\u2019Connor feels it can represent an opportunity for others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have Rob [Downey] out and Duds [Diarmuid Healy] is out as well,\u201d he says, \u201cand that\u2019s on top of Mark [Coleman] and Deccie [Dalton] and S\u00e9amie [Harnedy].<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of them are out for the weekend, but they\u2019re all only small knocks. Duds is probably the most serious, he has a quad problem, but you\u2019re talking about a couple of weeks for all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve all been making changes all along, but this has forced us into making more changes, which isn\u2019t a bad thing<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have been making a few anyway, but there\u2019ll probably be extra now, because of the injuries. But, as I\u2019ve said, that\u2019s what fellas are training for and there\u2019s an opportunity now on Sunday so hopefully they\u2019ll put their hands up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert Downey signs autographs after the win over Galway – he will also be absent on Sunday. Picture: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
The two-week gap between the Tipp and Kilkenny games afforded the management the first proper chance for hurling training, with physical work preceding the start of the league and then three consecutive matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to get a good block of work in,\u201d O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a lot of hurling done and it was nice to get a break too after the three games in 13 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a bit of fun in training too, it wasn\u2019t all too serious. You\u2019d be hoping now that when the weather picks up, things will start speeding up a bit \u2013 we were lucky that it was mostly dry when we were training but the conditions underfoot were tough, which has been conducive to fast, free-flowing hurling.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s been like that for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last weekend, Waterford and Tipperary missed the chance to join Cork on six points at the top of the table, losing to Kilkenny and Limerick respectively.<\/p>\n
The latter pair are now on four points as well and represent Cork\u2019s next two matches, both away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does show how competitive the league is,\u201d O\u2019Connor says of the packed bunch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had two home games out of three \u2013 you want to be winning all your home games but we have two tough away matches coming up and you\u2019d hope that they\u2019ll tell us more about ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork have shuffled their pack in the national hurling league so far \u2013 and, even if management were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-317289","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\/317289","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=317289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}