{"id":354486,"date":"2026-03-19T14:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354486\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:59:12","slug":"rebels-near-to-clean-bill-of-health-for-deciding-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354486\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebels near to clean bill of health for deciding game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Cork manager Ben O\u2019Connor expects to have close to a full squad to choose from for tomorrow night\u2019s last regular-season Allianz HL Division 1A game against Offaly at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh (7pm).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A win or a draw for the Rebels will secure a place in the league final \u2013 a defeat would even suffice if Limerick were to beat Galway in what is effectively a play-off for a place in the decider.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">With Cork coming off the back of a training camp in Portugal, Diarmuid Healy\u2019s quad injury is the only major worry, with Robert Downey (shoulder) and Mark Coleman (hamstring) set to be back in contention as O\u2019Connor and his selectors name their squad tonight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cDuds [Healy] is still the most serious fella,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cBrian Roche was out for a short while but we would expect that he\u2019ll be back as he\u2019s not too far off now, either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cEthan Twomey was meant to start against Limerick but he picked up a knock in training beforehand and missed out \u2013 he should be back in action either this weekend or early next week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cOtherwise, we\u2019re okay \u2013 any other injuries that we had have cleared up. should be right. Touch wood, that\u2019s the way it\u2019ll stay now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5008976_4_articleinline_2851214.jpg\" alt=\"Cork's Mark Coleman in action against Killian Sampson of Offaly in 2024. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile\" title=\"Cork's Mark Coleman in action against Killian Sampson of Offaly in 2024. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Cork&#8217;s Mark Coleman in action against Killian Sampson of Offaly in 2024. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">While the visitors, with five defeats from five to date, are already relegated, Cork will not be taking anything for granted. That competition for places is so strong means that O\u2019Connor has faith in whatever 15 will start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cExactly, that&#8217;s what it is,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe&#8217;re going to put out a strong team this weekend and, as with all the other games, we&#8217;re going out to win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIf we win, the carrot at the end of is a league final and that&#8217;s the second-biggest competition in the game nationally, so we&#8217;ll be looking to drive on for that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIf we win at the weekend, any other permutations make no difference to us then. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThere&#8217;s other outcomes where we could still lose out, but if we win at the weekend, all of that is knocked on the head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThat\u2019s our objective, we\u2019re going out to win at the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cork\u2019s last six home league games have drawn crowds in excess of 20,000, with more than 30,000 at the most recent one, the home clash against All-Ireland champions Tipperary last month. Tickets for tomorrow\u2019s game are priced at \u20ac20 or \u20ac15 for students and OAPs while juveniles are \u20ac5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork manager Ben O\u2019Connor expects to have close to a full squad to choose from for tomorrow night\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-354486","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\/354486","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=354486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}