Pat Ryan assessing how Cork squad members deal with college tests

More than most counties, Cork have to deal with the impact of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup during the nascent stages of the Allianz Hurling League.

That was shown quite clearly on Wednesday night, as MTU Cork and UCC faced each other in a game that featured a large quantity of players that will be pushing for places in the Rebels’ starting 15 and matchday squad as the year goes on.

With both sides having already beaten both UCD and the University of Galway, qualification was assured prior to the clash in Bishopstown and the two Cork institutions will now deal with the knockout stages.

While the progress in the Fitz means that Cork have limited access to the players involved at third level, manager Pat Ryan takes the positive aspect of that, with performances for their colleges part of the overall assessment.

“We said that to players from day one,” Ryan says.

“We’re working off a panel of 44 at the moment – we’ll cut that down to 36, probably after the Limerick game, really – and we’ve told the lads that how they’ll play at Fitzgibbon level will be impacting whether they make the panel or not.

“We’ve at fellas at all of those games, whether it be selectors or myself, assessing players’ performances. They’re obviously not able to train much with us at the moment so it’s about looking at them and seeing who’s going well or showing form.

“It’s important that fellas play well and the good thing is that there are fantastic management teams in place for both colleges. It gives fellas an opportunity to meet different coaches and meet different people involved, which is good for their development.”

Having opened their league campaign with a big win over Wexford last Saturday, Cork will look to make it two from two tomorrow when Limerick visit SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (7.30pm).

Obviously, getting the win is the main aim, but during the league it is combined with the desire to test players in a championship-like setting.

“From our point of view, it’s very hard to throw lads that haven’t been training with us over the last few weeks straight into a national league game and expect them to play well,” Ryan says.

“We have a lot of fellas that have been on our panel for the last couple of years that weren’t on the 15 or that were trying to push their way on to the 26. They’re the fellas who are ahead of any of the new guys coming in, because they’re the lads training away hard.

“If you take last week, Brian Roche was in, Cormac O’Brien was in, Pádraig Power was in – they had been involved in panels a bit last year but it’s those kind of fellas that you’re looking to give game-time to.

“Eoin Roche is another lad that might get game-time at the weekend, Ethan [Twomey] came on as well and played well – obviously, he’s with UCC but he’s kind of a key fella for us as well that we want to bring forward.

“It’s trying to monitor that. Micheál Mullins is a lad that we’d have liked to have given a start to as well, he’s on our panel for the last two years, but it’s hard because he’s involved with MTU.

“When fellas get a chance, you want to give them the best opportunity to perform, as opposed to putting them out into a situation where you’re making it hard for them to succeed and you’re nearly creating a situation where they’ll fail.”