Allen contemplates future at the helm

CORK GAA chiefs face a battle to retain the services of John Allen as Rebels hurling coach.

Allen and his selectors finished their two-year term with defeat in yesterday’s All-Ireland final and the coach hinted afterwards that he will think long and hard before making any decision on another term in charge.

Allen has been involved as masseur and selector with Cork teams going back to 1999 and admitted: “I’m not making any decision right now. I’ll have to sit down with my good partner, Patsy Morrissey.

“I’ll think about it over the coming weeks. It takes a lot of time to train a county team and it has a huge impact on family life — more than what people would think. There is a huge commitment involved and I need to discuss the matter with my wife and children.”

Allen was appointed coach in 2004, following the departure of Donal O’Grady. He led Cork to All-Ireland glory last year while yesterday’s defeat was the only loss the team suffered in his spell at the helm.

Asked about the future of some of his older players, Allen said that apart from Brian Corcoran and Pat Mulcahy the rest of the squad were still in their 20s and he expected them to be there again next year.

Meanwhile, Ronan Curran admitted his side were beaten by the better team and can have few complaints. “No one likes losing and I certainly don’t but you don’t have a God given right winning.

“Fair credit to Kilkenny, they had everything planned down to the last detail. They chased and harassed us at every opportunity and never allowed us to play our normal game.

“To be winning you need all your players going well. We hadn’t, Kilkenny had, that was the difference. You have to give them some credit. They made light of their injury problems as we expected they would.

“There are far too many good hurlers in that county to miss one or two.

“We are extremely disappointed at losing, but it’s only sport and we’ll bounce back...

“Right now it’s hurting, but time will dull the pain. The county championship is just around the corner for most of the lads and they’ll go back to their clubs during the week and prepare for that.”