{"id":324261,"date":"2026-03-02T01:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/324261\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:15:09","slug":"we-pick-fellas-on-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/324261\/","title":{"rendered":"We pick fellas on training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben O\u2019Connor had no qualms about making nine changes to his team for the win over Kilkenny \u2013 not least because he wasn\u2019t even aware of the scale of the alterations.<\/p>\n

Cork had been rotating their side already during the league and injuries to various players \u2013 and Shane Barrett\u2019s suspension \u2013 meant that the hand of O\u2019Connor and his selectors was forced to a degree for the trip to UPMC Nowlan Park.<\/p>\n

However, even with so many switches, there was no noticeable weakening of the team or squad.
\u201cI didn’t even realise we had made nine changes, I’ll tell you the truth,\u201d O\u2019Connor said afterwards. \u201cI know we had a couple of injuries, but I didn’t realise we had nine changes from the last day until someone said it today.<\/p>\n

\n That’s just the way we pick teams \u2013 we pick a team and we don’t look at who played the last day or whatever. We pick fellas on training during the week and that’s the way it is.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

And, with a trip to Limerick to come this week \u2013 potentially the first of two against the Shannonsiders in the league, with a home championship game at the end of April \u2013 the competition for places will be ratcheted up a notch.<\/p>\n

\"CorkCork manager Ben O’Connor at UPMC Nowlan Park. Picture: Ray McManus\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d like to be playing myself!\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if I’d like to be playing, I’m sure all the fellas inside there would like to be playing. It’s just the competition in the group. Good healthy competition in the group at the moment.
\u201cWe’ll maybe have a few fellas back from injury this week now, which will add more pressure to get on the 26 for match day. But that’s a great place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

ROOM TO IMPROVE<\/p>\n

In terms of the game itself, O\u2019Connor was naturally pleased to have secured another victory.It could perhaps have been achieved in easier circumstances, but he expects further improvement as the championship comes more into view.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelighted with the performance, tough conditions out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n We got a big performance out of every fella that started and the subs that came on made a difference, so we\u2019re delighted.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another day out of the way and another win under our belts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have had a few more goals, but their keeper [Aidan Tallis] had a couple of great saves in the first half, in fairness to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose, with the conditions that were out there, even with the breeze, it was hard to take a shot with the way it was swirling across the field, so the only option is to put up the hurley and run and try to get into a better position.<\/p>\n

\"TimTim O’Mahony of Cork is tackled by Liam Moore of Kilkenny. Picture: Ray McManus\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it took us a while to get it going, but when we did, we had a couple of good moves, but we have a lot to work on, it\u2019s only the first of March.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the landscape of the Division 1A table, it\u2019s a championship lead-in that is likely to include a league final and the manager has no problems with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to win every game,\u201d O\u2019Connor said, \u201cwhether it’s league, challenge, whatever it is, we want to win every game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf that happens, brilliant; and if it don’t, we’ll just dust ourselves out and get going again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben O\u2019Connor had no qualms about making nine changes to his team for the win over Kilkenny \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1965,1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-324261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324261","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=324261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}