O’Neill ready to fight his corner

PREVIEW: Cork v Galway

After five years in UCC he found himself out in the jobs market with a Degree in Process and Chemical Engineering, and a Masters in Financial Economics to his name.

If securing those had been difficult, the next step of gaining employment didn’t look any easier. Yet in January he nailed down a job working in the innovation centre in the De Puy plant in Ringaskiddy. He’s been there three and a half months and doesn’t underestimate his good fortune. Plenty of his friends have decamped to Vancouver and Australia recently in search of work, robbing Bishopstown of fine GAA talents.

The proximity to home eliminates any torturous commute for O’Neill and permits him to continue his hurling commitments with club and county.

The departure from college meant a seismic shift in his sporting landscape. For the first time he was free in the early months of the season to condense all his focus towards the Cork senior hurlers. For the past five years O’Neill has juggled Fitzgibbon Cup commitments and he appreciates those lessons he learnt. When he started out he looked to Tom Kenny and Kevin Hartnett for guidance, but there was an array of other county men to learn from as well. Kilkenny’s John Tennyson and James Fitzpatrick were teammates at the start, Waterford’s Richie Foley and Tipperary’s Michael Cahill were alongside him at the finish.

After several shattering experiences, his Fitzgibbon career concluded in a blaze of glory with a final success in Parnell Park on March 7th last year.

“It couldn’t have ended any sweeter with UCC winning the Fitzgibbon. I’d got to three final weekends and had a lot of disappointments so it was very sweet to win.

“The Fitzgibbon was a huge benefit to me and it was where I learnt my trade. You’d watch other lads, how they trained and how they behaved.”

The start of his UCC career corresponded neatly with his senior intercounty breakthrough. John Allen drafted him onto the Cork panel midway through the 2005 season and for the following two All-Ireland finals he had a front-row seat.

The learning process continued as he soaked up information and by 2007 he was set to carve his own niche in the Cork team. But it was back in the corner of defence rather than on the wing where he had manufactured his reputation underage.

Since then his star has risen in the team, as reflected by Denis Walsh calling him when he was in London last New Year’s Eve and enquiring would he become vice-captain.

He recalled: “I was delighted and it was nice to be captain against Tipp when Fraggy wasn’t there. But there’s a lot of leaders in this team and I’ll take a jersey wherever.

“The corner-back thing isn’t a big deal because the half-back and full-back line isn’t set in the current game. Denis (Walsh) would be very strong on the fact that you need to be flexible as forwards move out the field a lot.”

That trend will be put to the test in tomorrow evening’s NHL Division 1 decider.

The identity of Cork’s opponents triggers a stream of underage regrets for O’Neill. Tomorrow will be the first time he has featured in a national final for Cork and the men from the west are the prime reason why that scenario has taken this long to materialise.

“It always seems to have been Galway,” he recalls.

“I lost one minor All-Ireland semi and two U21’s to them. There was also an All-Ireland intermediate semi and then you had the senior last year.”

Those underage experiences offered him an insight into championship combat with the new giant attacking wave Cork are prepared to unleash this season. Back in 2003 O’Neill would have solidered in the minor ranks with Aisake O hAilpín and he recalls a Wednesday night in July 2005 in Páirc Ui Chaoimh when Michael Cussen caused chaos against Tipperary in a Munster U21 hurling final.

In recent weeks O’Neill’s been using training matches against them as a perfect testing ground for the Galway towers of Iarla Tannian and Joe Canning.

“The bit I played with the two of them back then, you could see they were a handful. People think they’re only in there to win a high ball or break it but there serious hurlers. It’s good for me to be marking them in training because Galway have a few big physical forwards similar to them.”

It may enjoy second-class status in the GAA world, but tomorrow’s NHL title decider is a big deal for O’Neill. Last Sunday he watched the Cork footballers claim league success and was pleased for several players who he is acquainted with.

O’Neill was in school with captain Michael Shields, rookie full-back Jamie O’Sullivan is a club mate, Fintan Goold studied the same course as him in college and he’s been delighted to see another Bishopstown man Ken O’Halloran’s services enlisted by Conor Counihan this spring. Now he wants to garner a league trinket of his own.