O’Connor out as Brendans look to improve in Ui Mhuirí replay
O'Connor, 15, has gone to America with his school's All-Ireland-winning basketball team for a series of games and won't return until two days after the replay.
Team mentor Gary McGrath reports no injury problems, but is hoping for a big improvement in the weather.
"Conditions were dreadful (for the final) and certainly didn't suit our style of football," he said.
"Because we are a very light team a firmer sod suits us better. Spioraid Naoimh have a lot of big players and we struggled to cope with them in the heavy going.
"It's something that would concern me if we have similar conditions for the replay. We'll have to come up with some plan to try and counter their big men.
"Looking back on the drawn game, we played some great football in the opening quarter, but missed a couple of chances which might have given us a bigger half time lead. Once they scored the goal from a penalty we didn't have any cushion of scores, and it gave them the momentum to push on, helped by the deterioration in the conditions. They certainly suited the bigger team.
"When they went in front late in the game it looked as if we would never get the chance to level it. Their goalkeeper made a couple of unbelievable saves, but we wore them down eventually and if there was one player you'd want to take that last minute free to level a game, Mike O'Donoghue would be the man.
"I knew immediately the free was awarded, he would point it. He's been doing that for us all season. In the heel of the hunt, a draw was a fair result, and I expect the replay to go all the way down to the wire again.
"Paul is a loss to us but we'll just have to get on with it. That basketball trip was planned weeks ago and we weren't banking on the Corn Uí Mhuirí final ending in a draw."
The CSN management team of Peter Fagan and Philip O'Sullivan will be on tenterhooks this afternoon as two of their players line out with the county U21 team against Clare in the provincial semi-final.
An injury to either player would make it next to impossible to win the Corn Uí Mhuirí on Monday. Goalkeeper Ken O'Halloran will play in the same position for Cork, while Michael Shields is named at right corner back as the Leesiders look to make it to their second final in a row.
"It's a position we didn't want to find ourselves in and it will be an anxious 60-odd minutes in Kilmallock this afternoon for us," said Fagan.
"Several of our players were involved in an under 16 game on Wednesday which disrupted our preparations, but thankfully we picked up no serious injuries, and all going well in Kilmallock, we should have a full squad to choose from.
"Looking back on the game we struggled badly in the opening half, but you have to remember this was the first final for all of our lads while Brendans, with their great tradition, were chasing their 19th title.
"With that game out of the way, our guys know they are capable of much better and you will see a big improvement in our play in Monday's replay.
"People may lose sight of the fact that we played the last 10 minutes with only 14 players and were within an ace of winning. It's invaluable experience for us. We didn't do ourselves justice in the first half, and we'll back stronger then ever for the replay."
If CSN are to win their first title and there's a view abroad that they have missed their chance their defence and in particular their half-back line will have to be a lot tighter.
The Brendans' half forwards is easily their best line and centre forward Kieran O'Leary in particular made life extremely difficult for Tadhg Creed last time out. However, the CSN man recovered well in the second half.
A key player for CSN will be captain Michael Shields, who is beginning to show the signs of his enormous workload between school, club and county. However, this is his last chance of a Corn Uí Mhuirí medal, and if he applies himself to that challenge from the first to the last whistle on Monday, it could end in an historic first victory for the Bishopstown school.
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