Cork v Offaly: Ben O'Connor aware of need to manage Barry Walsh's load

While Barry Walsh continues to show enough promise to suggest that he will be an asset to the Cork senior hurling team in this year’s championship, manager Ben O’Connor will not be precluding his involvement at U20 level.

Noel Furlong’s Rebels begin their Fulfil Munster U20HC campaign on Wednesday evening away to Tipperary and Killeagh’s Walsh – who scored the first of Cork’s six goals in Sunday’s Allianz HL Division 1A clash – will captain the team.

When Cork, managed by O’Connor, won the U20 All-Ireland in 2023, they had to contend with a rule whereby players could only play at that grade and senior if there was at least a week between games and, as a result, Eoin Downey’s U20 involvement was reduced.

In the wake of that, a Cork motion for GAA Congress sought to reduce the window to 60 hours and it was passed.

Speaking after Saturday night’s win over Offaly secured a place in the Allianz HL Division 1A final, O’Connor paid tribute to the performances from young players, including Walsh, which are making team selection more difficult and confirmed that the attacker will be available to the senior and U20 sides.

“Brian Keating came on and scored, Hugh [O’Connor] was very good again,” he says, “I hate picking out people.

“Barry then has U20 next Wednesday and the week after, the Wednesday before the league final. Look, we'll have to try and manage Barry as well.

“He's only a young fella so we don't want to be giving him any chance of getting injuries. Ian Jones [strength and conditioning coach] will sort that out. He'll tell us what to do with him and we'll just follow his advice.

“He [Walsh] is U20 so he'll be with the 20s.”

As well as Walsh, Saturday’s 6-24 to 0-20 victory featured goals for Brian Hayes, captain Darragh Fitzgibbon (two each) and Tim O’Mahony while all five subs introduced got on the scoresheet, including Pádraig Power as he returned for the first time since sustaining a cruciate injury against Limerick in February of last year.

At the other end, Ciarán Joyce played at full-back for Cork, with Dáire O’Leary having manned the number 3 slot in all of the previous league outings.

“If you look, every fella has played in different positions,” O’Connor said.

"The plan was we would have played Joycey a little bit earlier but he got injured. Then when he was coming back from injury he was back into the training panel and Rob [Downey] got injured and the easiest thing was put him in at centre-back.

“We had hoped to put him in there a little bit earlier but the circumstances of other fellas getting injured. But it is good to have options.”

The final against Limerick – scheduled for Easter Sunday, April 7 at 4pm – affords Cork a chance to retain the title they regained last year after a 27-year wait. While it is just two weeks out from the Munster championship opener against Tipp, which is followed a week later by another clash against the Shannonsiders.

While it may not be a universally-held view, O’Connor has no doubts that being in the final is the ideal preparation for what follows.

“Exactly,” he said, “we would have been looking for a match if we didn’t qualify for the final, so what better way than to qualify for a match against Limerick?

“They’ll be saying, ‘You’ll be minding yourself now,’ but if you’ve a challenge match, you could pick up an injury just as easily.

“We’re delighted to have another competitive game to get into the lads.”