Diarmuid O’Sullivan: Rebels need more players
Diarmuid O’Sullivan has reiterated his criticism of Cork’s panel depth and claimed that increasing their pool of potential championship players should be the main Allianz League target.
The ex-full-back said after July’s All-Ireland semi-final extra-time defeat to Limerick that Cork’s “lack of impact from the bench has caught up to them”.
Cork’s subs were outscored by Limerick’s subs by 2-6 to 0-1 that day, with John Meyler opting to bring back on a number of players who were previously taken off. O’Sullivan also described as ‘criminal’ the decision to persist with Seamus Harnedy for a period of extra-time, despite an injury, words that Meyler and the Cork management will undoubtedly have picked up on.
“I don’t know whether they did or not. Everyone has an opinion. I was entitled to mine,” said O’Sullivan. “Cork got their last score in the 61st minute, their next score from play was the last minute of injury-time at the end of extra-time. Is that good enough in terms of a Cork team? I don’t think it was. The substitutions: If they had their time over again, would they change that? That was a management decision, that’s why they’re in those positions. Hopefully, there will be lessons learned and it will give Cork a platform and an opportunity to push on again.”
Aside from the Harnedy issue, Cork brought back on Daniel Kearney, Shane Kingston and Michael Cahalane after they had been taken off.
“They should have taken Seamus Harnedy off,” said O’Sullivan. “Remember when he came out after full-time for extra-time and he could hardly even walk and in that time four balls went in one-on-one, a fit Seamie Harnedy would have won three of the four of them in a contest and contributed to maybe three scores that would have pushed Cork maybe further ahead, but Seamie, obviously, shouldn’t have been on, he couldn’t compete for any of the four. They brought Mark Ellis in as a half-forward, Mark Ellis is a centre-back or half-back. Shane Kingston was taken off and put back on as a midfielder, Daniel was taken off and brought back on.
“You need to be able to pull out of 22/23 players. Limerick had those numbers. John Kiely had four or five guys he could realistically trust and maybe it’s something Cork didn’t have, so it’s something they need to have and to build on to be realistic contenders.”
Cork begin their Div 1A league campaign on Sunday against Kilkenny at Nowlan Park. “Cork have won an All-Ireland in every decade, so it’s a big, big, big year,” said O’Sullivan. “They just need to tidy up on a few things, maybe get two or three players in key areas and they’ll be in a strong position. They’ll definitely be contenders.”
