Cork hurlers looking to build on holiday spirit

The frenetic nature of the GAA season, especially during the championship, means that opportunities to relax are infrequent to the point of invisibility.

Nowadays, with the packed Munster SHC round-robin followed by a knockout stage that brings games every fortnight, the focus is always on the next match – a focus sharpened by the knowledge that defeat means the end of the road.

To that end, a team holiday can serve a vital purpose from the point of view of unwinding and bonding. For the Cork hurlers, a trip to Miami and Orlando at the end of November was reward for a year that almost saw the ending of the long wait for an All-Ireland title.

Drawing a line under 2024, it also allowed the focus to turn to the coming year and trying to go a step further, as selector Donal O’Mahony outlines.

“It was well-earned as they worked extremely hard last year,” he says.

“They were deserving of the holiday and it was a great threshold, boxing off 2024 and starting 2025.

“It was a brilliant opportunity for fellas to spend some downtime together because, the majority of the time we’re together, it’s fairly high-pressure with meetings and video analysis, talking tactics and stuff like that.

“It’s good to just go away and relax and leave the hair down. A big metric that we use is family and for the lads to bring their partners and wives and kids was really satisfying.

“We couldn’t have asked for better.

“We were back in December, which is a month later than usual, so it was heavy going for the last four-to-five weeks, trying to build a base before we go into the new stuff.

“It was a tough December for fellas!”

Cork are back on the pitch this evening, taking on Waterford at Fraher Field in Dungarvan (5pm).

The game is a fundraiser for former Waterford player Brian Greene and Waterford Hospice, while on Thursday Pat Ryan’s side will be in action against UCC in the annual game in memory of Canon Michael O’Brien.

With no inter-county pre-season competitions this year, the Co-op SuperStores Munster Hurling League will not be able to offer management teams a chance to assess options as fringe players push for a chance in the national league and the championship.

O’Mahony accepts that the new situation must take some getting used to, but, at the same time, every county is in a similar boat.

“It’s different,” he says.

“Last year, we went back in November, so that gave us an extra four weeks. Then there was the Munster senior league, which is three games that you can pencil in and plan for.

“We’re back a month later this year and it’s challenging – you’re trying to bring players into the panel and you want to be fair to everybody.

“There’s a challenge there in being fair and giving everybody sufficient game-time and giving them a fair opportunity but also getting your house in order for the national league, which is less than a month away.

“It’s a challenge but it’s the same challenge that everybody is facing. Everybody is playing each other in practice games to get going and experience will tell you then that January is always challenging – we still have a lot of fellas involved in the Fitzgibbon Cup, more than most counties.

“We don’t get overly excited about things, we’ve been there before, we know that January will be a challenging month.”