Micheál O'Sullivan on what needs to be done to help improve Cork football
Micheál O'Sullivan managed the Cork minor footballers this season. Picture: Dominick Walsh
It was a disappointing year for Cork football most notably at U20 and minor levels which has raised more questions than answers.
There has been a lot of debate around football on Leeside and what’s required to get Cork being ultra-competitive again. Micheál Haulie O’Sullivan was in charge of the Cork minor football team this season as they went out of the championship on the back of losing to Kerry by 15 points in the Munster final followed by a 17-point hammering by Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
The former Cork footballer, who won two Munster senior medals, spoke openly about the challenges facing Cork.
So what does O’Sullivan think of the current state of football on Leeside and what is required to get the Rebels back up the pecking order?
“You look at Kerry, Derry and Mayo for example at minor level, their 17-year-olds are coping well with pressure,” he says.
“So, what are we doing wrong that our 17-year-olds aren’t coping as well with the pressure? Maybe it’s just that those teams that I just mentioned have a very good group of players. I spoke with the Derry manager when we went up there for the weekend back in February. It was a beneficial weekend as regards team bonding and team building and getting a taste of football up north and all the rest of it.
"The players that are coming into him are at a standard that he wanted and expected.
“It was a standard that would lead to being competitive in the Ulster championship and possibly going on to win an All-Ireland, which they did this season. I don’t know if we are at that standard.
"We don’t have much success at the top grades at the moment in schools football. Kerry are dominating at Corn Uí Mhuirí level and Frewen Cup level. Kerry have four or five schools where all of Kerry’s best footballers go to these schools.
“For example, I was involved with the Clonakilty Community College Frewen Cup team this year and we played Tralee CBS in the semi-final. They beat us by 15 points. They had seven or eight players on the Kerry minor panel, we had three, one was injured. We held our own for the first half but they just overran us after half-time. They had too much quality, too many good players.”
So, with schools football in the spotlight, the Carbery Rangers club man comes up with a suggestion that could benefit football on Leeside.
“The real competitiveness needs to start at schools level,” O’Sullivan said.
“The likes of Rochestown and Coláiste Choilm, as an example from the group of players I had this season with the Cork minor footballers, there was seven or eight lads going to Rochestown so possibly that could be a school that would be targeted over the next two years with a view of getting to the latter stages of the Corn Uí Mhuirí and possibly winning it.
"Clonakilty Community College wouldn’t be too far behind with four or five players but that is where Kerry are ahead because they are hammering Cork schools at Corn Uí Mhuirí level and Frewen Cup level and that seed is in the head of the Cork players when they go out to play Kerry at inter-county level.
“You have to at least get to a level playing field at schools level if you possibly could but then we are so spread out in Cork with regards schools.
"Going forward, I think Brian Cuthbert said it already with regards making particular schools , I think he called them. It’s definitely something that has to be looked at and something that needs to be worked on if we are going to try and get to some degree of a level playing field with the top counties.
“The conveyor belt hasn’t been there. It’s 2019 since Cork football last had a very successful year. I know we all talk about development, but players want to win. Winning is what keeps lads interested and involved. Cork football is at a low ebb at the moment and the conveyor belt isn’t coming through at the moment."
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