Cork Minor Football: Micheál O'Sullivan has no regrets with how season went

Micheál Haulie O'Sullivan says he has no regrets with how the Cork minor football season panned out.

The Carbery Rangers club man was manager of the Rebels this year as their season unravelled with two heavy defeats which sparked a lot of debate on Leeside. Cork played four championship games, losing to Kerry in the Munster championship quarter-final by two points before impressively beating Clare in Quilty on a scoreline of 1-13 to 0-8 to book a Munster final spot.

But the season came apart at the seams losing to Kerry in Páirc Uí Rinn, 2-18 to 1-6, and then getting taken apart by Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final, 3-14 to 0-6. 

O'Sullivan says that the management and players gave it everything.

“The way it finished up was disappointing,” he says.

“On reflection, the bottom line is do I regret anything or do I regret getting involved? I don’t because I would say I definitely improved as a manager and a coach from the experience I had over the past two or three years with the group of players going back to the development squads. It’s a different level of football compared to club level. It was a huge experience. At the start, when we as a management team met these lads when they were 15 years old, the ultimate goal was to send them back to their clubs as better footballers. 

"We would like to think that we have done that from the point of view of the learnings they had, the strength and conditioning, dieting and nutrition, sports psychology along with the tactics and skill level that we would have tried to improve within the players.

“We don't really have any regrets. It went wrong for us but we don’t have any regrets with what we did with the players. Experienced people within our management group felt that the players were in a good place both mentally and physically and also from a football point of view. Bottom line and it’s the same with schools football, where teams change every year, you might think you have a good team but you don’t know what’s out there. Kerry turned out to be a very, very good team.

“We played Armagh in a challenge game and we seemed to be on a par with them but not showing up on the day, coping with the pressure, these players are only 16 and 17 years of age. There is learning in it for them and they will be better players for the future because of it.” 

Cork’s tactics came in for criticism this season especially in the Munster final against Kerry. A big crowd was present in Páirc Uí Rinn and it was live on TG4, but it was no contest unfortunately. Confidence did naturally take a hit and the Leesiders were unable to recover against Mayo a month later.

“Hindsight is a great thing and we thought these lads were tuned in and in a good place,” O’Sullivan said.

“The group seemed to have gelled together well. The tempo was there at training and we were coming off a good win against Clare. These things happen in football where you don’t turn up in one game and you get beaten and you get a second chance. It’s unusual that you don’t show up a second time. I still can’t put my finger on why it did go wrong to be honest. We played a sweeper against Kerry in Páirc Uí Rinn because the first day against them we struggled to bring the ball out. We felt if we had an extra man back there we would find it easier to get out. As it turned out, we got off to such a poor start and Kerry dominated in every area.

“The skeletons of the Kerry defeat were probably in the heads going into the Mayo match and we conceded a goal after a minute. It’s very easy to point the finger at what's going on in the pitch but we are putting the players out there so there’s two sides to everything.” 

When the Cork minor football panel was released back in March, it included players from 25 different clubs so there was a nice variety.

“We left no stone unturned when it came to watching and scouting players. I am a teacher in Clonakilty and I would have made sure at schools level that I was in charge of the U15 schools team when these players were U15 and also at U16 level so I wasn’t missing out on players. Maybe apart from the hurling lads that came in late on, I don’t think we missed out on anyone.

“The way the Cork County Board have been working over the last few years is that you have a one year term as minor manager. Keith Ricken is behind me so he has had his players since they were 15 years of age so I would say let the process go and develop because it’s the way Cork have decided to do it. A lot of other counties don’t do it that way. I was minor manager for one season, your definitely going to be better if your there a second year.” O'Sullivan concluded.