Bring on Saffrons, says recovering Ó hAilpín

SEAN Óg Ó hAILPÍN has stressed he meant no disrespect this week when he expressed his surprise that Antrim — Cork’s next opponents — were still alive and kicking in the hurling championship.

That said, he won’t be too bothered if Dinny Cahill decides to stick his words up on the Ulster side’s dressing-room wall ahead of the counties’ All-Ireland quarter-final clash at Croke Park this Sunday.

“Let him,” said the Na Piarsaigh man, who gives himself a 50-50 shot of being fit for the encounter. “I actually didn’t realise Antrim were still in it and that was probably Seán Óg in a bubble of himself, just worried about Cork games.

“If you spoke to me about earlier round games I couldn’t tell you who played who. I don’t give a damn. I am just worried about Cork and how Cork progress in the championship.”

Ó hAilpín’s connections with the Glens are stronger than most “down south”. He visits Cushendall every year, for one, but relations between the counties haven’t always been cordial.

Their last championship meeting came at this very same stage six years ago and will forever be remembered for Cahill’s choice words about a handful of Cork’s players in the build-up.

Niall McCarthy was described as a “dreadful hurler” while Brian Corcoran was said to be “finished” and Cahill topped it all off by boldly predicting an Antrim win. The final score? Cork 2-26, Antrim 0-10.

“I haven’t spoken to him about the comments back in 2004, but if he was genuinely honest I would have said — ‘look Dinny, if that’s what you thought, fair enough’. But he was still wrong on Corcoran.”

Cahill has been far more diplomatic in his appraisal of the Munster side this time and the Tipperary man is certainly well informed, given the presence of Jerry Wallis and Bob Thornhill in his backroom.

Wallis trained Cork to two successive All-Ireland titles in the middle of the last decade, while Thornhill was a selector on the Cork minor team that featured a certain Seán Óg Ó hAilpín back in 1995.

Cork approach the weekend harbouring injury worries over Ó hAilpín, Ronan Curran, Shane O’Neill and Jerry O’Connor and will respect an opponent that produced a surprise defeat of Dublin last weekend. “An unbelievable blessing in disguise for Cork,” is how Ó hAilpín painted it. “We rate Dublin. Any time we played Dublin they’d give us a fistful, if not beat us. So, by Antrim beating Dublin, that sends alarm bells.”

Cork have been ringing a few warnings of their own in recent weeks and the three-time All-Star wing-back admits they have amassed a few regrets from the two Waterford games.

Ó hAilpín accepted criticisms including a failure to close out both ties and he also spoke of a lack of determination against a tactically clever side which demonstrated Cork’s need to “box clever”.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” he said.

For all that, he was equally quick to point out that they lost out on a Munster title by the puck of a ball and he rejected out of hand suggestion players like himself, Ben and Jerry O’Connor have long since passed their sell-by date.

The thing is, last Saturday’s defeat in Thurles didn’t just cost Cork a first provincial senior title in four years, it propelled them into the path of Kilkenny in an All-Ireland semi-final.

Provided, of course, that they see to Antrim.

On the evidence of the championship thus far, it is difficult to see any county defeating the champions and Ó hAilpín has already revealed neither Cork nor Waterford would so on the evidence of last weekend.

“The general consensus is that no-one is going to beat them (Kilkenny). Sunday is going to be a tough game and the prize for winning is a nice, beautiful game against Kilkenny.

“I don’t want to be getting too ahead of myself here,” he added. “There is one sure thing about sport — uncertainty. Put it this way, if we do win — and that’s a big if — we’ll be going into Kilkenny as underdogs and it will suit us down to the ground.”