Kingston Keen to Build Resilience
Kieran Kingston’s Cork senior hurlers begin their Allianz League campaign with a home game against Clare on Saturday evening at 5pm in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, part of a double-header which also sees the two counties meeting in football at 7pm.
Following the retirements of Eoin Cadogan, Bill Cooper and Colm Spillane, Kingston has added a number of new faces to the panel, and also some not-so-new ones. “A number of the U20s have joined the squad from the last two All-Ireland winning teams. Conor Lehane is back and Mark Keane has joined the squad as well, albeit we haven’t seen much of Mark yet because of his club involvement. It’s a very young squad which is great for now and the future of Cork hurling.”
Like his football counterpart, Keith Ricken, Kingston takes the long view, and injuries to a number of key players will provide opportunities for others to stake a claim. “Jack O’Connor and Robbie O’Flynn haven’t trained in a while, they’re just coming back now. Declan Dalton, Niall Cashman, Alan Connolly are long-term injuries, o obviously there’s a rehab process here, then there’s getting back onto the field with us, then there’s getting up to match practice so it’ll be a challenge to get back during the league. Niall is just back doing a little bit with us and Alan is out, he dislocated his shoulder and again is rehabbing from that, so we haven’t seen him either. They’re difficult injuries to gauge.”
Kingston is very clear on his expectations for the league this year. “It’s a precursor to the Championship, we have the split season this year, it’s the first time we’re back to the round robin since 2019 and given the short gap between the league and championship, it’s very important that we are really, really competitive every time we take the field – that’s not a cliché, that’s what we want to be. Whilst obviously we want to give guys a chance and give them some game time, especially when we’ve so many young players, at the same time we need to be really competitive in every game we play. After making the progress we made last year and coming so close in the league and having a disappointing All-Ireland final, we need to continue to build resilience in this young squad.”
It’s likely to be a challenging campaign, with players also involved in the Fitzgibbon Cup and freshers’ competitions, but Saturday’s double-header is an ideal opportunity to get off to a good start on home turf.
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