Ben O'Connor: Reaching Munster final best preparation for All-Ireland series

While there may be a school of thought that says the Munster SHC final is best avoided, it’s not one to which Cork manager Ben O’Connor is subscribing.

The Rebels face Clare at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday with both counties and Limerick already assuring of progressing to the All-Ireland series but with the final pairing yet to be decided.

All three outcomes are possible, but there is a view that going off-Broadway via an All-Ireland quarter-final against the beaten Leinster finalists would be a clever route.

However, with three wins from three under his belt as Cork manager, O’Connor would like to complete the set, especially as the Rebels have not beaten Clare in the championship since 2021.

“It's strange that you have to win four matches to be guaranteed to get to a Munster final,” he says, “but, look, that’s we’re going to try do at the weekend.

“We don't want to be knocked out of the Munster on Sunday and be looking for a challenge match before you go in to play an All-Ireland quarter-final.

“We’d look at the Munster final as being a good prep match for moving on to the All-Ireland series and we didn't say anything else at the start of the year, only that we wanted to win every game.

“This is another game that we want to win. Our record against Clare hasn't been great, we haven't beaten them the last five times we've played them, I think, so, we want to turn around that as well, especially because it’s on above in our own patch.

“You see the support we've been getting and we can be guaranteed that there's going to be 75 percent of the crowd on Sunday will be supporting Cork. As usual, our boys like to thank the supporters for coming, so they'll hopefully put on a big one.”

Since the win over Waterford last Saturday week, captain Darragh Fitzgibbon and Robbie O’Flynn have joined the Cork injured list, along with Ciarán Joyce, Robert Downey and Dáire O’Leary.

While four of that group should be back in contention for the All-Ireland series if not before it, Joyce’s season is over.

He remains a valued part of the group, though. After the victory in Azzurri Walsh Park, man of the match Brian Hayes name-checked the Castlemartyr man and O’Connor is delighted to still have him around, too.

“Brian said it there,” he said, “the boys know what Joycie has put in since he has come on to the Cork panel.

“They don't want to let him down now either and, look, we're not going to cut Joycie loose because we haven't got the use of him.

“He'll be around Sunday with us as well and he'll be around any night that he can make training. He'll be above above training and he'll be helping out in any way he can. That's the kind of a group that we have.

“The fellas like to see Joycie around and Joycie likes to be inside and messing around with the boys as well.

“There’s a buzz when he’s around and the lads are able to have a laugh and a joke with him. It's good for him then to see that the boys aren't forgetting about him as well.”