John Horgan on hurling: Cork fans will be taking more interest in early season action more than most

Nobody puts a great amount of store into what transpires in pre-season competitions but, at the same time, they can be important in their own right, all the more so for a new management team.

There has not been any great managerial change on the intercounty hurling front, the status quo prevailing in nearly all the leading counties.

The one exception, of course, is here on Leeside with Ben O'Connor taking over the reins from Pat Ryan and bringing in an entirely new team who will work alongside him.

When there is a changing of the guard in any county, there comes with it an extra bit of spotlight, what new personnel will get the call to state their case for inclusion in the months ahead, replacing those whose time has run out.

Conversations with the players who will now be on the outside looking in cannot be easy for any manager, new or old but that's the way it is, it's a call that they feel must be made.

Ben O'Connor has made those calls since his appointment and the work has already began for the initial squad that has been put in place, over 40 we are led to believe before it's trimmed down as the season gains momentum.

Last season all pre-season competitions were suspended, much to the annoyance of some provincial councils who were a loss financially because of the decision.

That probably applied in football more than hurling, in Ulster, in particular, where the Dr McKenna Cup generated a lot of money for the council up there, that competition sometimes attracting up to five and six thousand and maybe more for some of the games.

The Munster Hurling League brought in large numbers to some games as well, the reason being the appetite was greater among supporters because of the much earlier conclusion to the previous season, the middle of July instead of the more traditional September ending.

The split season changed the schedule and whilst there was some opposition to that initially, in general it has been a success.

It meant, of course, that there was no intercounty activity for the best part of six months and if your own club was eliminated early in the championship, there might not be a great appetite to attend games.

However, the decision to suspend the pre-season competitions has now been reversed and for those starved of intercounty activity that will be welcomed.

You're certain that Ben O'Connor has no great problem with the return of the Munster League because it provides him and his selectors with an opportunity to have an earlier look in an intercounty environment at the players that he wants to look at.

Yes, the first week in January is a very early start and the conditions might not be overly kind but, at the same time, a management team, particularly a new one, can learn quite a bit in the two or three games that they will be overseeing.

Cork's opening game will be at a Limerick venue followed by a home encounter with Clare a couple of days later.

If they top that three-team group they will have a final to play against Tipperary, Waterford or Kerry.

BLEND

The competition will take just a fortnight to complete and the expectation is that the team's formation will be very much based around a blend of senior inter-county inexperience with maybe a couple of more mature players thrown in.

No county is going to set out to prioritise winning the competition, the management teams will take the games as they come, making plenty of changes from game to game and within games.

The expectation is that the Cork 15 chosen for that opening game against Limerick will bear little or no resemblance to the one that was chosen for last season's All-Ireland final.

In fact, it will be no surprise at all if it's a completely new starting 15 and that may well be the situation in all counties, the emphasis being very much on the experimental.

We all know the capabilities of players like our four All-Stars, Sean O'Donoghue, Ciarán Joyce, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Brian Hayes, and many more with them so they may not get too much game time before the more important tests that the commencement of the NHL will bring.

The secondary competition will follow fairly quickly and Cork will be defending the title that they won last season for the first time in 27 years.

Different management teams take different approaches to the league, some set to extract the maximum out of it, others maybe not as much.

There was a time when winning a league title, putting too many eggs into that particular basket, militated against your chances in the championship, a championship that now follows a lot more quickly than it used to in the past.

That's no longer the case, of course, Limerick and before them Kilkenny dispelling that theory.

And at half-time in Croke Park last July it looked very much on the cards that Cork were going to do the double too before it all came crashing down thereafter.

Ben O'Connor will have his own theories on what he wants from the pre-season competition and the national league that follows and topping his list of priorities will surely be greater squad depth.

Squad depth is just as important as the team that starts, maybe more so and you really need a viable alternative if the need arises in all 15 positions.

The new Cork management will want to have a good, hard look at the new players that they will introduce, give them their opportunity over a couple of games, definitely at least two.

The national league schedule has its usual three home games and three away, Cork welcoming Waterford, Tipperary and Offaly to SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh and three away trips to Galway, Kilkenny and Limerick.

If you are targetting any competition and making it to the knockout stages, winning the home assignments must be prioritised.

But it's first things first and the returning Munster League will bring its own set of priorities for Ben O'Connor and that first home game against Clare is sure to draw a substantial attendance.

It would be a similar situation in any county when a new management team begins its journey, a night fixture under lights providing plenty of anticipation.

And have no doubt, the annual Canon O'Brien Cup game with UCC will have its own attractions too for a public that just wants to see their intercounty team in action again.

People might still be dwelling on the events of Croke Park against Tipperary last July but it's time to finally consign that forgettable day to the outer regions of the memory bank.

Some Cork hurlers have departed the stage, some great servants but the time may well have arrived for more of the players that Ben O'Connor and Pat Ryan managed to All-Ireland success at under-20 level to come to the forefront, older and wiser now.