Cork v Tipperary: Alan Connolly looking to maintain a family tradition

Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1 final will be the first between Cork and Tipperary since the 1960 clash at what was then known as the Athletic Grounds in Cork.

On the Cork side, there will be family link – in goal for the Rebels that day was Mick Cashman of Blackrock, the grandfather of attacker Alan Connolly.

“My mom sent me that, actually,” he says, “he was next to Christy Ring in the photo.”

Connolly’s mother is Carol Cashman, daughter of Mick and sister of Tom and Jim, who won All-Irelands with Cork across the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

He is proud to be carrying on a strong lineage, though he’s keen to put some medals on the resumé.
“Even if I did win one, Tom and Jim would probably still laugh at me because of the amount of medals they have between them!

“It's great. I feel very proud when I'm representing Cork and Blackrock and they're hopefully proud of me as well.”

An Achilles problem has meant that Connolly’s league campaign to date has been interrupted, with only a start against Limerick before coming on against Galway a fortnight ago. He is keen to make his mark but, such is the strong team ethos in the camp, he won’t complain if he is a spectator and Cork win.

“Not at all,” he says, “it’s better than watching them lose.

“I’d happily sit out the whole year and watch them win. Obviously, it’s great how the team is going now and hopefully trying to get back into the first 15, anyway.
“It’s enjoyable going into training, that's the main thing. The year has flown and time flies when you’re having fun.

“The team are flying at the moment and competition for places is as high as it’s ever been and we're as close and as tight as we've ever been as well.”
Having lost the All-Ireland final to Clare last year, reaching the league decider has been a strong response from Cork – though not necessarily one that was targeted as the be-all and end-all.

“I don't think we put any milestone on the league or anything like that,” Connolly says.

“We just want to win every game. We just want to keep going, win every game, week on, week on, and that's the best we can do.
“Yeah, it’d be big for us because since I've been there, we haven't won anything, from Munsters, All-Irelands, leagues. We won a Munster senior league, I think that was it, but you can’t really count that.

“It’d be important for us as a group just to win something and then drive on for the 20th of April, which is the main focus.

“From the All-Ireland final to now, everyone's trying to win every sprint in training, trying to get your hurling better, trying to get your touch better, striking, everything.

“You need to constantly improve as a team, and if we do that, we can do great things.”

A central plank of that approach involves taking goal chances, with Cork having fired in ten in the last two matches against Clare and Galway.

For a player like Connolly, that strategy must be like manna from Heaven?

“We probably left a good few goals behind us last year,” he says, “we probably still are leaving goals behind us, we're just getting more clinical, and that's important.

“I don't mind if I'm not scoring them, everyone plays a part in the forward line to get them, and in the back line. Obviously, it's important to get the goals as well, though.

“It is definitely something we try to bring into our game. It is finally paying off. We are not going to score four and six goals every game, and people have to accept that.

“But we are trying to get more goals, I'd say that is fairly obvious to see.”