O’Donovan on the ball for Cork’s away itinerary

The Cork hurling and football sides will clock a combined 1,388km in travelling to league games in Antrim and Mayo this weekend.

Responsibility for making sure everything is properly arranged falls to county board administrator Diarmuid O’Donovan, who has been on the case from the time the fixtures were finalised late last year.

“The first problem with this weekend is that it’s a bank holiday weekend,” he said. “We knew it was very important to book early so basically as soon as the fixtures came out we booked the hotels for the Antrim and Mayo games.

“We wouldn’t have been up in Antrim for a game for a long time so it was a case of contacting the Antrim County Board for suggestions regarding accommodations and then taking it from there. For the hotels, it was manna from heaven I suppose, to have such a big block booking in place in advance.”

Getting to Antrim is fairly straightforward, given that the journey is almost all motorway. There is little requirement on players to change currency either, so nailing down times is the primary challenge. The two main people you’d consult with would be Jimmy Barry-Murphy and David Matthews, the fitness coach,” O’Donovan said.

“Jimmy would decide on the departure times and David would have input on what to eat and when. Other than that, you’re fairly constrained as you have to go by bus, there’s no direct flight.

“The panel will leave at around 11am and there’ll be a mid-afternoon meal break in Dublin, before going on to Antrim town, where they’re staying,” he said. “Generally, you would eat straightaway, but because Antrim is so far away you have to modify it slightly, and the driver needs a break too.

“They’ll warm down and rehydrate and take their protein shakes straight afterwards and then the plan is to go as far as Dundalk for the meal.

“They should be home between around 11.30pm and midnight, though from that point of view it’s a good thing that it’s a bank holiday as few of them would have to be up early on Monday.”

While unable to give precise figures in terms of travel costs, O’Donovan does admit that, broadly speaking, Cork’s home games pay for the away trips. There may be more longer trips in 2015, however.

“We have been lucky this year,” he said.

“Apart from Antrim, Mayo is the longest trip this year. Next year, you could be looking at going to Derry, Donegal – if they get promoted – and Tyrone, so we’ll know all about it.

“When you’re deciding whether or not to go up and down on the one day or have an overnight, you take a few things into account.

“Obviously, there’s the distance and then the importance of the game too, if it could be a factor in deciding promotion or relegation. You want to give the team every opportunity to perform to their best, and you must take into account too that players could be travelling long distances just to get to Cork beforehand.”