I agree with Barry K O Bama on Donncha, I think he still has a lot to offer, he's only 32 and with so many lads retiring his experience could be vital.
I don't have a problem with the dual player issue, the lads in question concentrated on football last year and played well below what they are capable of (I know Cadogan had injuries, but he still played).
Only time will tell.
Jim Gavin is in a completly different position, All Ireland Champions and a very strong panel to pick from.
It's Cuthbert's first game so he's obviously going to try and put out his strongest team.
Out of all the four Cork teams in football,this year ,the team best equipped to win any title would seem to be the U21 team,and getting out of Munster is going to be an achievement in itself,such is the mine field it is ,as Tippereary will have the bulk of the 2011 minor team,and Pat flanganan is added as coach and a lot of that team played last year but they at there peak now.
In fact that Tippereary management set up with David Power is very good ,and Alan O Connor ,who was with the minors in 2011 as Strength and Conditioning ,and with loughainey this year ,it is a top class set up.Alan O Connor ,is like Power a young coach ,and is involved with Tipperary Minors hurlers this year.
And they are taking part in the Hasting Cup ,starting this week,they are bound to be prepared well.They have to play Leitrim away the weekend,but trips away are bound to stand to them down the line.
If we do get to play Tippereary,at least we have home advantage.
Cork may not come out of Munster,but based on two concepts, (A)talent availble and (B) a proven management team,they seem to be the best team out of our four teams with the right balance.
But they have a huge game against Kerry away,and such has Corks dominance over them the last decade,Kerry are targeting this as a huge game .Darragh O Se is doing a good job with them,last year our cool heads and expierence just got us over the line.
I would expect Kerry to be well prepared , they should have a good few from last year and there will be a huge Kerry crowd at this.They have Padraig O Se,Tadhg Morley,Cillan fitzgerald ,Ronan Murphy,Kieran Murphy(another fine kerry midfielder) ,Adrian Spillane,Conor Keane,Jack Savage,all really fine and highly rated players.
Cork with Sean Hayes in charge have an excellent manager and is proven in Cork,with Gene O Driscoll there also,it is a good set up .If not this year,I would expect Cork to win a Munster title next year.Gene was involved with the minors in 2010,with Cuthbhert,has vast expierence,with modern day football.Astonishing Cuthbhert overlooked him for a senior role,and more so with who he brought in instead.
John Cleary in the time he was with Cork and with Tony Leahy also left a great legacy,8 Munster Titles,two All Irelands,and lost two Finals.
Cleary's training was magnificent,had a lot of heavy running done in January down in Guggen Barra,but balanced it with football skills later on.
If you look at Corks u21 season as a whole last year what is most pleasing to see is the preparation done by the team ,and even in challenge matches against poor teams,Cork were putting up massive scores in those games.Cleary was key to that,and he and Tony Leahy had a pivotal role in to turning Corks U21 scence from what Noel O leary said in 2003,was the worst set up ever ,to one of the best around.Nothing had changed dramatically in that 12 months ,it is simple,Cork appointed a management team ,that knew what they were doing.That is where it changed.
Cork's U21 Challenge Matches last year:
5th January Dungarvan -Cork 6-22 to Wexford 0-6
19th January -LIT Cork 0-14 to Galway 0-9
9th February- LIT Cork 4-15 to 2-9
12th February -Mallow Cork 6-15 to Clare 0-6
15th Februrary- Ballykelly Cork 0-12 beat Roscommon to 0-11
23th Feb- DCU Cork 1-14 to Dublin 1-6
They had a continuous line of games in the lead up to the Kerry game on the 13th of March.Momentum was built,and while the team had changed considerably from the start,as March closed in,the management had became close enough to picking the 15 in mind.Credit has to go soley to Cleary for that.I was talking to a father of one of the guys involved,and he said the set up was first class,busses ,meals even after away challenge matches properly organised etc.They did not have to want for anything.They were well looked after.That has been the hallmark of every team,Cleary has been involved with.Not only has he produced a conveyour belt for Cork talent regulary for senior,he produced them in a winning enviroment ,and more importantly that enviroment included beating Kerry in Kerry .It is when you only look within the u21 set up and dive deep below the surface ,you begin to truly appreciate what John Cleary brought to the set up.And that is what makes it frustrating,you see one Cork team well prepared yet then you see others off the required standard.
Compare and contrast the U21 Football set up to the U21 set up in Hurling.The Hurler's played four challenge matches in a 4 week period ,mid March to April(that was fine) ,but then just one game from the 22nd of April up to the 17th of July (Munster Championship v Tippereary)there was no way momentum could be built up ,or a settled team built,or a pattern of play formed.The one game they played was in the start of June against the Cats in Cork and the warning signs were there,Cork 1-10 to Kilkenny 2-13.
But Cork had almost a five week gap in games from then to the opener against Tipp.Is it any wonder,Cork were so much of the pace. Tipp had a challenge match with Kilkenny two weeks before us and beat Kilkenny.
When Tippeary U21 hurlers had Limerick in the 1st round,they went to Carrick on Suir ,and played Waterford in a Challenge aproxiatemely around ten days before their opener.They were fine tuning.Compare there prepartion to Corks and it is world's apart.
Yet the post mortems in Corks defeat seemed full of suprise,as people are baffled ,by what happened,and Cork were very well prepared,according to the management,and the County Board.Now some may say,they made a mistake and got it wrong this year.The fact is,the year was no different.
If there is series of wins or defeats nine times out of ten, they don't just happen cause your luck is either in or out,contary to the myth some have,that it just did not fall for us on the day and these things happen.They happen for a reason.It usually is a symptom of either things being extremely bad or extremely right in a set up.
I posted here before that in 2012 in May before we played Tippereary in the Pairc in U21(another game we lost that we should have won),our lads played Cork intermediates the week before.Lads were playing against lads they knew from the club scence,in a comfort zone.What can you learn from those games is little if anything at all.
In complete contrast Ken Hogan,had Tippearys final warm up game against Kilkenny.Cork in two years,were off the standard.The All Blacks say if it happens once it is an accident,twice it is a trend.
Take the Cork Intermediates Hurlers as an example,with a far less talented panel,there preparation was much better this year.They knew Clare, the Munster Finalists the year before , would be tough(had already played them in Chareville in a challenge at the start of the summer,it was a close game),so they played Kilkenny in a challenge match in Cork two weeks before (a strong kilkenny team beaten All Ireland Finalists the last two years)and beat them by0-17 to 0-12.
Cork blew Clare away ,and were very unlucky to loose to Tipperary(All Ireland Champions)the last two years by a point ,in Thurles on a lovely warm friday eveining with a good few of the lads that were shell shocked by events with the U21 team just two nights before.
You could not have faulted Liam Hayes or he's set up,in that they prepared them as best they could.Thats what good management teams do,they prepare well.The other side of the coin is Fail to Prepare ,Prepare to Fail.The U21 Hurling teams failed drastically.That may seem harsh but there is in truth no other way to kindy phrase that performance.
The U21 Footballers this year have a good set up with a blend of expierence and lads making there debut at the grade.There is the makings of a solid spine in most key aeras of the team.There is a lovely balance of strength,athleticsim,pace,natural footballers and scoring forwards throughout the team.The management team ,having being picked early in time (credit the county board for doing that with this set up)were at and have taken in a lot of club games in the County.
Dan MacEoin,Conor Dorman,Cathal Vaughan,(with CIT ,tommorrow in the Mcgrath Cup)Mark Sugrue ,Kevin Crowley, (Ian Maguire,,Brian O Driscoll,Sean Kiely playing for UCC Sunday in the Mcgrath cup against UL), and Alan Cadogan have been with the panel last year and are certain barring injury to be starting this year.
Michael Cahalane,Killan O'Connor( involved with the Senior's Sunday),Aidan Moyinhan,Kevin Fulgnati,Stephen Cronin,Jack Bushe ,John Corkery are all fine players.The panel started with around 35 aprox,at around October with trials and all is meant to be going well.From now on til March ,training is bound to be intensifed,and a lot of challenges to take place over the next few weeks.
Looking at the panel available ,Corks main concern may be Full back,just as it was last year.Cahalane had done as good a job as he could,but Varley exposed him in the final.Cleary could not be faulted for that,as in truth he had no other option for full back.
Conor Dorman and Brian O Driscoll ,showed last year they are not full or corner backs,they are superb half backs or options at midfield.Dorman was super at half back at senior for Bishoptown this year.It will be interesting to see what the final panel will be,and who is no 3.
It is not beyond the bounds of reality,that one of our best prepared football teams go out in the 1st round,and yet ,the minors could ,as they got a kind draw and have the backdoor ,and make an All Ireland quater final.
The Minors have talent but Donal O Sullivan ,been a selector for years on teams that failed, and should not have got this job,and he's methods are outdated and Jack O'Connor I fear would have the Cork team outhought before a ball is even kicked should they meet.
The one positive is Dorgan from Ballincollig is trainer ,but again how much input will he have.It is not much good if we have a team trained superbly,but the wrong team or players are played out of position as like with the minors hurlers who had a good trainer Frank Flannery ,last year,but the manager picked the wrong team.He done great with Beara in 97,I think it was.This is 2014 though.
Donal O'Sullivan,has been a great servant to Beara and Castletownbere and football runs through he's veins but that should not mean he is the minor manager.I can never understand these appointments,a guy does great 13 years ago ,and yet given a crucial job.
Kerry have taken a step forward with Jack, got rid of Mickey Ned O'Sullivan despite he's life long service to Kerry was by many in kerry deemed old school, .Jack is still coaching at schools,and very much aware of the talent around.James Mccarthy from Castlehaven would have been ideal,involved in schools coaching also.Very much a modern day manager,and would have been a great manager with the minors.
The Cork Juniors ,understandably having to field a new team may not be as strong this year ,they done everything they were asked of last year,credit due,and gave several potential seniors a stage in which they could showcase there talents.
The U21 football team have talented players,a history and a winning culture from the last ten years,complimented by a good coaching set up ,so I think they would be the strongest of all our teams,even though we have the hardest task of all,considering ,we have Kerry away in the 1st game,with no comfort of the backdoor.
Very interesting and of note,Jim Gavin picked Ciaran Kilkenny to start tommorrow in the O Byrne Cup against Westmeath in a second strength side.
Amid the talk that he was approached by Daly to go hurling this week,Gavin is making a statement of intent,it is a long long season starting tommorrow,and he is a vital part of the football plans and there is no time for both.
Gavin made it clear he wont allow dual players.A statement of intent ,and a ball has not even been kicked yet.
Outstanding posts.
Good post alright.
The only thing I'll say is that its probably easier to run a proper u-21 football set-up than a hurling u-21 set-up. The hurling is in the Summer where you have to compete for players and time with clubs and the senior team. There are no other championships played during the u-21 football and so effeectively you have the players to yourself.
Thats not a defence of Ger Fitz. By the sounds of things, that man couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
Fintan Goold knows last chance saloon better than any man alive...I'd be happy enough with the team picked for Sunday.
There was no point in bringing in the likes of Hayes unless they were to given a decent opportunity.
I doubt that John McLoughlin will make the grade but we are light on corner backs so it makes sense to give him a chance to impress.
We also need to see if Donncha can still perform - he was a realtively developer so there's not huge milage there - IMO he still has something to offer.
I'm also pleased to see Goold at MF - this has to be last chance saloon for him.
It's really heading into the unknown - we don't know if Cuthbert can back up his poer point presentation - he's talked the talk and now must walk the walk.
I presume he'll get the players confidence if he shows he knows what he's about.
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