Why omit such a fine role model?
Greyer, not darker. Or at least greyer in those places which aren’t getting shinier.
However, O hAilpín’s fitness and physique have been such that his formal exit from inter-county activity still seems surprising, even at the age of 33.
The exit raises many questions, most of which land into Cork manager Denis Walsh’s in-tray today.
A manager sinks or swims by calls such as last weekend’s, when Walsh jettisoned O hAilpín by telling him he was “not in his plans” for 2011, and the manager will not need telling that this was a particularly big call.
It’s Walsh’s prerogative to call players in or to omit them as he sees fit, but the general surprise in Cork – and further afield – at letting O hAilpín go tells its own story.
Dropping him may be a signal from Walsh that he intends to engage in a rebuilding process, but it’s usually as well to keep some retaining walls for the most radical refurbishments, even if those aren’t quite as durable as they once were.
The obvious example of how to do so is on offer from one of Walsh’s former teammates.
Conor Counihan’s Cork footballers collected Sam Maguire this season with a pragmatic campaign which showed the benefit of experience vividly; the champagne football of last year was gone, with Cork doing just enough in the big games.
Counihan’s ability to manage his panel was crucial to that, and the retention of Nicholas Murphy and Anthony Lynch particularly significant.
Both men were starters in the red jersey for over a decade, playing in All-Ireland senior finals not just in the last decade, but in the decade before that (1999), yet this year their involvement was relatively peripheral.
Murphy wasn’t a starter, though he came on to make a vital contribution on some of the biggest days of the year, while Lynch was an even more detached figure if you were to look at the team line-ups.
Yet at half-time in the All-Ireland SFC final, Lynch was the man talking to his teammates while the management conferred outside the dressing-room door.
He’d been there before, and there were still a few lessons he could share.
KEEPING older players involved when their starting places are no longer guaranteed is a tricky challenge for managers in every sport, but Counihan and his management team succeeded in doing so and reaped the rewards.
It’s arguable that Denis Walsh doesn’t have the raw talent that Counihan and company have. He won’t be drawing from seasoned squads of All-Ireland champions at U21 level, for instance. But that would presumably make it even more important to retain older players whose attitude and approach when it comes to preparation.
Players learn from other players as much as they learn from the manager; a man who went for a training run the morning after winning an All-Ireland final seems a good example in that regard, and one who’d be a good role model for younger players.
There will be the usual trawl through recent comments and statements for evidence of unrest and tension in the Cork camp, and O hAilpín’s parting shot will likely be cited as exhibit A in that regard.
Given that those review meetings continued last evening, there may be more witnesses for the prosecution in the next couple of days.
