Ben aiming to match club success with county

EARLIER in the week, Ben O’Connor was back in Dublin, one of a number of captains who attended the formal launch of the 2004 Guinness hurling championship.

It was in Croke Park where, almost two months ago, he helped to inspire Newtownshandrum's success in the club championship final.

And he has been nearer to the Liam McCarthy Cup proudly held by Kilkenny's new captain Martin Comerford for the photo-call than he and his Cork team-mates were last September when they made a gallant bid to win the All-Ireland.

Tomorrow afternoon in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (1.45pm), they make the first defence of their Munster title. However, since it's Kerry who are providing the opposition, the assumption is that this will be one game when there won't be a lot of defending to do.

O'Connor admits that down his way all the talk is of Cork and Limerick, which is hardly surprising since Newtown straddles the two counties.

Nevertheless, he insists it hasn't been difficult to prepare for a game in which the public at large expect Kerry to be hammered.

"Every fellow is looking forward to getting in there, to getting started and playing well. There's fierce competition for places and they'll be playing for them against Limerick," he says.

"Every player will be going in with that frame of mind.

"Everyone is talking about Cork and Limerick, that's the match they are waiting for. When you hear it constantly, it's hard to tune into the fact that you have Kerry at the weekend. But in fairness, everyone has got down to the hard work over the past few weeks.

"They're looking at the Kerry match as the first step. Get that out of the way and we can look forward to playing Limerick."

Plagued by a troublesome knee injury in the latter stages of the club championship, he says that he is feeling fresh after "a nice break" of about six weeks. Initially he contemplated surgery, but was advised against it by Cork doctor Con Murphy. "It's alright. I can train away or play a game, but the next day it will be sore."

While recognising that Setanta Ó hAilpín is a huge loss to the team, O'Connor is happy to think the players have reacted positively to the situation. "You hear the talk, we can't expect to do as well without him, but we recognise that there is nothing we can do about it. Every fellow has to put in that bit extra. And the fellows who come in are going to try to do what Setanta was doing. It's up to every one of us to put the shoulder to the wheel."

One of the newcomers is Jonathan O'Callaghan, whom Ben credits with earning his place after a good League run.

"He's from a small rural club like myself and from my own part of the county. There's no fear of Jonathan, he's very-level headed. You always try to give a new player a hand out as much as you can.

"It's going to be a tough road and with a little bit of luck we could be back there. Kilkenny are still the team to watch. Every year they bring two or three new fellows and they are pushing fellows into the team. They are the yardstick by which we all have to be measured.

"Any one of five Munster teams could win it, Galway are looking good and Wexford can't be written off. It's wide open."