Veteran Cork stars commit to cause for 2017 campaign
Both players had a limited involvement in Cork’s 2016 campaign, but are keen to continue at inter-county level for another year.
Neither, however, will feature in this evening’s McGrath Cup opener away to Tipperary (Templetuohy, 7.30pm) as both have been excused from match-duty for the month of January.
Alan, 31, played on only three occasions last year — he lined out at midfield for the qualifier games against Limerick, Longford and Donegal — having spent the first half of the season recovering from surgery on his ACL.
Donncha, 35, also featured in just three games.
With Fintan Goold, Daniel Goulding and Patrick Kelly calling time on their Cork careers in recent weeks, the decision of the two O’Connors to lend their services for 2017 has been welcomed by management.
“They’re on board and they’re training away with us,” said O’Neill. “We know what these guys can do so we’ll leave them off at this point. We have to manage those lads as they have miles in their legs. There is no point running them around the place in January.”
Brian Hurley is another who won’t see action until the early rounds of the league as the Castlehaven forward continues to rehab the hamstring tear which saw him undergo surgery last August.
“Brian is going through his rehab process. He has another bit of time off. I don’t think he’ll be available for the start of the league at all.
“There are other fellas and while I wouldn’t say they are injured but they do need to work on their fitness a little bit more.”
From the team beaten by Donegal in last July’s fourth-round qualifier, six will start against Tipperary this evening — goalkeeper Ryan Price, Stephen Cronin, Ian Maguire, Mark Collins, Sean Powter, and Peter Kelleher. Michael Shields, who was absent during last year’s championship, is named at right corner-back.
O’Neill added: “We are bringing in a couple of lads to give them a game at this level and see how they get on. We don’t want to be stretching too many lads out at this time of year, particularly fellas who wouldn’t be back up to the pace of it just yet and could do with some more training. We haven’t too much done in terms of on-the-field stuff. That is coming in the next couple of weeks. The McGrath Cup, you can take it or leave it. We didn’t win enough games last year. We want to win more games in the league. That is the focus.”
R Price: M Shields, J Mullins, J McLoughlin; S Cronin, C Dorman, M Taylor; I Maguire, R Deane; S Powter, M Collins, K O’Driscoll; N Coakley, P Kelleher, C Dorgan.
K O’Halloran, B O’Driscoll, D O’Driscoll, K Davis, K Histon, P De Roiste.
C Kenrick; E Moloney, J Henness, K Fahey;B Maher, R Kiely, B Fox;A Molone, J Kennedy; J Lonergan, P Austin, J Keane; C Sweeney, C Stapleton, D Foley.
E Comerford, L Boland, L Casey, M Dunne, P Shanahan, D Butler, C Hennessy, A McGrath, L McGrath, I Fahey.
D O’Sullivan; D Daly, J McCarthy, S O’Dea; P White, I Corbett, P Hannon; D Treacy, D Ward; P Nash, G Collins, D Neville; S McSweeney, S O’Carroll, J Lee.
A Ruddle, P Quinn, J Bridgeman, C Fahy, G Noonan, B Creamer, B Fanning, B Donovan, B Lynch, K Ryan, J Naughton.
J Hayes; D Nagle, K Harnett, M McMahon; L Markham, G Kelly, C O’Dea; G Brennan, C O’Connor; S Brennan, S McGrath, D Bolton; E Cleary, K Sexton, G O’Brien.
