O’Grady defends Allstar withdrawal

FORMER Cork hurling manager Donal O’Grady has mounted a stout defence of the Cork hurlers’ withdrawal from this year’s Allstar trip to Singapore.

O’Grady, coach of the 2004 Allstar selection, said: “I don’t think there are many people, in the Cork camp or otherwise, who could afford to take a month off work. But people who pick up the newspaper and read about the Premiership, Heineken Cup and inter-county GAA need to realise there’s a huge difference between them. The first two are professionals and the last are amateurs. People don’t make that distinction.”

In a wide-ranging interview published in the Irish Examiner today, O’Grady says his former charges have “every chance” of winning the three-in-a-row.

“All things being equal, if Cork have the same drive and hunger and stay injury-free, they have every chance of getting there. That’s not to say they’ll win it, but they have every chance.”

O’Grady also examines the prospects of the other hurling counties in the interview. Along with the likes of Galway and Kilkenny, he sees Tipperary as an interesting proposition in the season ahead, not least due to the return of former coach Babs Keating to the helm in the Premier County.

A secondary school principal by profession, O’Grady says proper coaching in primary schools is crucial to the survival and development of hurling.

“You have a captive audience in schools, because kids have to go to school. How much work is being done there? The IRFU and FAI have trained coaches - not paid, that’s not the point, but trained - in there.”