Cork v Limerick: Diarmuid O'Sullivan on walking tall on All-Ireland Sunday

When it comes to hurling, Diarmuid ‘The Rock’ O’Sullivan is certainly in the ‘been there, done that’ category.

A cornerstone of the Cork defence for many years he was a player that forwards never fancied coming up against as they knew the chances were high that they were going to come off second best.

It’s a testament of the high esteem he is held in country-wide that, travel anywhere and just mention The Rock and they will instantly know who you are talking about.

On Sunday he will make the trip to Croke Park again, this time as a Cork selector and a key member of the Rebels management team as they bid to bring Liam back home for the first time since 2005.

It certainly will be different for O’Sullivan, to be going in that way, and he said that the build-up to the final was much different than that to when he was a player.

“It is not a fashion gig by any manner of means. Myself, Ger Cunningham, and Kieran Kingston have been here since 9.30 this morning, it is now 3.10pm on a Saturday and we will be here for a while yet. We have invested ourselves heavily in this because we believe in this and the group we have around us,” O’Sullivan said.

“We invest all our energies and our spare time into it because it is what we do. It is what we want to do. It is what we love. We are passionate about Cork hurling and we will keep giving to Cork hurling as long as they want us to.”

This is his second spell as a Cork selector and came back when Kingston was reappointed as manager and he had no doubts in doing so when asked.

“Absolutely not. I think myself and Kieran are very comfortable with each other. We have great respect for each other. We both see the game the same as each other and we have the same kind of ideas about how we like the game to be played so it was an easy decision.

“When we decided to go the last time it was a joint decision. We are also very, very lucky to have Ger on board with us and he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table as well.”

That wealth of knowledge and experience would have helped guide the players, especially the younger ones through the last two weeks since they beat Kilkenny in the semi-final, but he said that everyone is different in the build-up to any game.

You can legislate for a lot of things, but you can’t really factor in people’s personalities or their emotions, that is up to each individual, but we are happy at where they have come from since the win over Kilkenny.

“We had a really good hit out last Saturday morning and another one on Wednesday night — the boys are in a good place, they are comfortable where they are at the moment.”

Having confirmed during the week that Ger Millerick is hopeful of playing some part on Sunday he also confirmed that Bill Cooper will miss out.

“Unfortunately Bill is ruled out. He is the only one of our 37 that is ruled out and you have to feel for Bill. He is given a hell of a lot of his career to Cork and a hell of a lot of years and great service, but unfortunately, his injury is significant enough that he won’t recover for the weekend; other than that we are clear across the board.”

TOUGH PATH

Turning his attention to their opponents on Sunday he said they were disappointed with their showing in the championship but closed that game off on the Monday night afterwards and moved on.

“I suppose every day Cork go out we want to win so it was disappointing that we didn’t achieve our ultimate goal that night. But we found ourselves in the back-door system, took our defeat on the chin, put our heads down, and worked our way through that.

“We had a couple of very difficult games along the way, but we have now arrived at a stage where we have the best team in the country in an All-Ireland final to take on and it is an opportunity that we relish.

“We don’t talk about the loss to them, we closed that off on Monday night after. We do that after all games, close them off. We recover, do our video analysis and that is it, done.

“They have been at the business end for a few years, they have been really successful, it is up to us to try and match them in whatever best way we can come Sunday."