Cahalane, Flynn and Walsh among those to be given chance by hurlers

The setting and keeping of standards are the watchwords as the Cork hurling team face into a new year.

Saturday’s game against Waterford in Fraher Field (5pm), a fundraiser in aid of Waterford Hospice and The Friends of Brian Greene, will serve as the season-opener for Pat Ryan’s side, who lost year’s All-Ireland final to Clare after extra time.

Cork have not had any retirements since 2024, but management will be giving an opportunity for some new players in the Waterford match and the Canon O’Brien Cup against UCC next Thursday night.

William Buckley and Diarmuid Healy, who have impressed for the Cork U20s in the past two years and also at county championship level for St Finbarr’s and Lisgoold/Imokilly respectively, are part of the set-up as 2025 begins. In addition, Darragh Flynn – who won All-Ireland U20 medals under Pat Ryan in 2020 and 2021 and briefly featured a year ago – is rewarded after a good year with Ballygiblin.

St Finbarr’s Jack Cahalane, who had been part of the Cork senior football panel last year, is also in the mix, while former county U20 footballer Alan Walsh, who scored 5-10 in four games as Kanturk reached the Premier SHC quarter-finals last year, is also given a chance to shine.

However, the bar is high, as Cork selector Donal O’Mahony outlines.

“That’s the language we’re always using in training,” he says.

“The standard is very high now and you have to meet those standards every time you put on the jersey. There are so many fellas chomping at the bit now to get in.

“On Saturday, there’s an added bonus in the sense that you’ll have a nice crowd there so you’ll get a bit of impetus from that.

“Any time you get a jersey now, there’s pressure on because fellas have to deliver to get a look-in.”

The All-Ireland U20 wins of 2020, 2021 and 2023 have ensured a good flow of potential senior players, but the challenge is to show that they earn a spot in a competitive environment.

“Pat says that a lot,” O’Mahony says, “we’re very fortunate in that we have some of the best hurlers who have come through Cork in the last 20 years, in terms of winning All-Ireland U20s and contesting Harty Cup and Fitzgibbon Cup finals.

“They key thing, though, is that they have to add value; there’s no point bringing fellas in unless they bring something different. We feel that the few fellas we’ve brought in all have unique selling points for adding something different.

“It’s a challenging environment now for anyone to get in there.”

Added to that is the leap in terms of conditioning, something increased by the upping of physical levels at senior and the change from U21 to U20.

“You have to be fair to fellas, there’s a physical challenge as well as a hurling challenge,” O’Mahony says.

“We’re very fortunate, we’ve the best S&C in the country and that was reflected last year, not just in our physicality and our fitness but also our injury-prevention – we had less injuries than last year than previously, which was very rewarding.”

With no Co-op SuperStores Munster Hurling League this year, Cork’s first competitive match of the campaign will be the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A opener against Wexford at Chadwicks Wexford Park. That game takes place on Saturday, January 25 with a 5pm throw-in.