Club final making Allen and Hayes’ jobs that bit harder

JOHN ALLEN and Conor Hayes share similar concerns after two rounds of the Allianz NHL.

They each want to make the qualifying stages, a prospect that doesn’t look the brightest and both have been limited by the involvement of players in the All-Ireland club final between Newtownshandrum and Portumna.

Allen doesn’t attach too much importance to the actual winning of the League. It’s merely about getting the ‘extra’ games. And, in Galway’s case this would be even more important given that they don’t have the benefit of provincial games to prepare them for the All-Ireland series.

“At this stage, some of our players are not playing particularly well,’’ says Allen, though conceding ‘there’s a good chance’ of up to a dozen of the players involved in the last three All-Ireland campaigns being involved in the Munster championship. And, he agrees the attack needs strengthening.

In addition to the Newtown contingent, Timmy McCarthy and Brian Corcoran were not involved in Sunday’s defeat to Waterford. And Bishopstown’s Ronan Conway didn’t start because he played two games last week, one with UCC in the Fitzgibbon Cup.

Conway has impressed with his ball-winning ability and his accuracy. In Allen’s view, he promises to be ‘a definite asset.’ Cork’s next game is at home to Down and there’s is a possibility that Seán Óg Ó hAilpín may return. He has been out with a hamstring injury and is about 70% fit. Cork will play Kilkenny on Sunday in a game to mark the opening of Blackrock’s new development in Church Road.

Conor Hayes, meanwhile, admits to being no more than disappointed with a second consecutive defeat, this time at the hands of Limerick in Pearse Stadium. On the positive side, he points out that they lost this game and the opening round (away to Antrim) by a single point. And, they have been feeling the loss of the Portumna players, notably Ollie Canning and Damien Hayes, along with Alan Kerins, who plays in the All-Ireland club football final and Derek Hardiman and David Forde who have been injured.

“We would manage to replace possibly three of our more experienced players, but not all of them,’’ he says.

“We didn’t play particularly well against Antrim and they took full advantage. It was a game we could have won if we pulled up our socks. The one thing I was happy about the Limerick game was the way our backs performed.

“There was a lot of good ball going into the forward line, but the return wasn’t the best. At the same time, Niall Healy had hard luck with two goal chances. If one of them had gone in we might have won the game.......’’

Agreeing that it does put the players under a bit of pressure, Hayes says that this may be ‘no harm.’ “We’re not down about it by any means, but at the same time we’d like to qualify for the quarter-finals. That would give us two further weeks. If we go out after the last round we’d have a break of over two months before the championship. We play Laois in the next round and they’ll also be chasing their first win. After that we have Tipperary and Kilkenny. Clearly, points will be hard to come by!’’