Cork Hurling: Alan Connolly not against four qualifying from Munster
Alan Connolly pictured at Blackrock Castle with the Toyota Yaris that can be won in Blackrock National Hurling Club's fundraising draw. Picture: George Hatchell
Cork attacker Alan Connolly would give his backing to any moves to increase from three to four the number of teams advancing from the Munster SHC to the All-Ireland series.
Connolly, speaking to promote Blackrock National Hurling Club's car raffle fundraiser in association with Cogans Toyota, which will see the winner drive away in a brand new Toyota Yaris Hybrid worth €30,000, feels that the early exit for two of the five teams in the province is an overly penal situation.
Currently, the sides finishing third in both the Munster and Leinster championships compete in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals against the second-tier Joe McDonagh Cup finalists. However, with Laois’s win over Dublin in 2019 standing alone amid a series of big wins, it’s likely that the mid-season link between the All-Ireland SHC and McDonagh Cup would cease.
While there is a chance that the third-placed sides would simply play off against the runners-up from the opposite province, there have been suggestions that the fourth-placed sides should be in the preliminary quarter-finals and Connolly would support this.
“I think it’s fair enough if a fourth team from Munster come into it,” he says.
“We’ve the hardest group to get out of our province - two teams are hard done-by there, they’re finished by June. I think it’s probably fair enough if that’s the case – I didn’t hear anything about it, but if that’s the case, yeah, I’d be all for it.
“The only way to see it is if you trial it out, but you'd feel bad for the Joe McDonagh teams because they want to play in the All-Ireland championships, obviously. They don't want to be just playing their own thing.”
Naturally, Connolly and Cork would prefer to be going the direct route, as they did this year following the Munster SHC win. Despite a successful year overall, manager Pat Ryan stepped down after the All-Ireland final loss to Tipperary and Ben O’Connor will now be the man in charge.
“We would have been happy for Pat to stay on,” Connolly says, “but to have someone of Ben's calibre coming in is probably the next best thing.
“I know we'll be fine with Ben. It will be all good. I think a lot of younger lads probably played with him - I didn't, but have only heard positive things said about him.
“I'm actually looking forward to it, I think we're back in two weeks.”
It will be a Cork squad convening without Patrick Horgan following his retirement and Connolly will miss his colleague.
“Obviously, before I was on the panel, you'd look up to Hoggie,” he says.
“He's had an unbelievable career with Cork. Just watching him at training, he's the first one there taking shots. He's trying to better himself the whole time - trying to get quicker and better at picking up the ball, striking the ball, taking frees and stuff like that.
“He's the ultimate professional. I don't have a bad word to say about him.”
In the Glen Rovers’ man’s absence, Connolly and Brian Hayes and others will be likely to carry a heavier mantle but he’s looking forward to it all.
“It's hard to tell, whether we're going to play three inside or two inside or one inside,” he says.
“That'll become clear; I think people will gather information from whatever we play in the league and stuff like that.
“It'll be interesting to see how it goes. I think we'll all be fine.”
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