Canon O'Brien Cup clash between UCC and Cork will allow Ben O'Connor to assess players on both sides

As opening games go, Cork hurling manager Ben O’Connor could scarcely have wished for better than Sunday’s Canon O’Brien Cup clash with UCC.

The game at the Mardyke (12 noon) will offer supporters the first chance to see a Cork team in action under new boss O’Connor – while the UCC team will also have a number of players involved that the Newtownshandrum native will be assessing.

“It’s ideal,” O’Connor says, “because I think we’ll have eight or nine on the UCC team and we’ll be able to get 24, 25 on the field ourselves then as well.

“Straightaway, you’ll have upwards of 30 fellas to watch in one game. That’s where you’re going to judge fellas.

“It’s great at the moment, you see the effort fellas are putting in in training with the strength and conditioning and everything, but, at the end of the day, they have to be able to put the ball over the bar or in the net and that's where they'll be judged.”

O’Connor and his management team are operating off a big panel at the moment as they seek to cast the net wide. January is a busy month as clashes with Limerick and Clare in the Co-op SuperStores Munster Hurling League are also on the calendar and a number of players have commitments with their college sides in the Fitzgibbon Cup.

To that end, O’Connor is keen to keep things fluid rather than rushing to any quick judgements.

“We’ve a big panel at the moment,” he says, “and we’re bringing in fellas for those games too to add to it, to keep the competition high.

“Thrown into the mix, after the Canon O'Brien, with the Munster league games, there's Fitzgibbon inside in the middle of it as well.

“We have nine or ten fellas involved in the colleges; if you're missing that many from training or from the matches, that kind of holds you back on what you can do as well.

“We have fellas that can come in and play the matches and, as I said to all the lads, the panel is open.

“Just because a fella is on the panel now doesn't mean he'll be on it in four weeks' time, with injuries or lack or form and there’s plenty fellas chomping at the bit to get in.

“Every fella knows that, ‘Look, if I’m not doing the business here, there's a chance I'll be left go and there'll be someone else in instead of me - and there's a chance that they could call me back in again after.’

“I just don't like the idea of picking a panel and saying, ‘That's it so lads, for the year.’ Fellas drop in and out of form and everybody knows that when they come in – they’re there once they’re performing and if performances drop, things will have to be done about that.

“We're just hoping that everyone that we do pick and bring in will keep their form for the year.”

After the UCC encounter, Cork are away to Limerick in the Munster league on Wednesday, January 7 - UCC play MTU Cork in the Fitz the following night - before taking on Clare in Mallow on Monday, January 12.

Admission to the game on Sunday is free, but attendees are asked to donate what they can. Part of the proceeds go to the charity Rise & Shine, who take additional needs children on holiday and provide respite care to their families, as well as Stand 4 Féile, set up to support Féile O’Sullivan, the Allihies teenager who sustained life-changing injuries in a farm accident earlier this year.