![\"Cork's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4990997_4_articleinline_3193822_1_.jpg\" "\\"Cork's")
Cork’s Diarmuid Healy is set to miss the rest of the league campaign. Picture: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nTomorrow night\u2019s Allianz HL Division 1A game at TUS Gaelic Grounds won\u2019t be Cork\u2019s last clash of the year against Limerick \u2013 but manager Ben O\u2019Connor is taking the game on its own merits and no others.<\/p>\n
The counties will do battle in the Munster SHC at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh on Sunday, April 26 and there is even a chance that they could be the top two in the league, which would mean meeting in the final of that on the first weekend in April.<\/p>\n
While that could mean shadow-boxing and second-guessing, O\u2019Connor is keeping the approach simple, as has been the case for Cork\u2019s previous four matches and four wins in the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going out to pick a team to win the game, the same as we have for all of our games this year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n If that\u2019s good enough, then well and good; if it isn\u2019t, we\u2019ll just have to drive on. We put out the team that we\u2019ve named beforehand and we hope that they go well.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that we have a strong panel at the moment, so we\u2019re not afraid to give fellas a go, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at Saturday night as Saturday night\u2019s game; we\u2019re not looking it at beyond that, playing in championship or playing alter down the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just looking at it as a league game and one we\u2019re going down to win and hopefully we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork’s Diarmuid Healy is set to miss the rest of the league campaign. Picture: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
For last Sunday\u2019s win away to Kilkenny, Cork had nine changes from the previous victory over Kilkenny, partly due to planned rotation and partly because of a sizeable injury list.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor is pleased to have two of those absentees back, as well as Shane Barrett after suspension.<\/p>\n
\u201cS\u00e9amie Harnedy will be back and so will Deccie Dalton,\u201d he says. \u201cThey trained this week and seemed to be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
That leaves Robert Downey (shoulder), Mark Coleman (hamstring) and Diarmuid Healy (quad) still absent, with the half-forward unlikely to be seen before championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be as long as it\u2019ll be,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know Duds [Healy] is the most serious of the three of them \u2013 he\u2019s going for a scan in a couple of weeks\u2019 time and he\u2019s hoping for good news on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe won\u2019t be ready for the rest of the league, we\u2019d imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Cork are four from four shows their depth and Sunday saw first league starts for goalkeeper Paudie O\u2019Sullivan, Hugh O\u2019Connor and Barry Walsh.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor will rotate again for Shannonside, expecting the competition to bring out the best in his squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, you\u2019d have to mention the three boys who made their debuts,\u201d he says, \u201cbut William Buckley as well \u2013 he\u2019s had a few games but this is his first year too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see the four of them, they\u2019re pushing the thing, mad to get on, made to get playing. That\u2019s going to keep everyone else on their toes, be that younger fellas or be that older fellas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve used a good number of players so far and everyone\u2019s getting a crack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n There\u2019s a few that haven\u2019t got it yet, so we\u2019ll look to get game-time into them as well.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThe same as every other day \u2013 because of injuries, there\u2019ll be a few changes and we\u2019ll be changing it up a small bit then as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all training so hard and it\u2019s nice that every fella thinks, \u2018I\u2019ve a chance of getting in here.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the way we\u2019ve been going and I think that\u2019s fair on us and fair on them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomorrow night\u2019s Allianz HL Division 1A game at TUS Gaelic Grounds won\u2019t be Cork\u2019s last clash of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-330308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330308","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=330308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}