Back to work...though not all of my players are so lucky

CORK manager Conor Counihan has revealed that three of his 2010 All-Ireland winning team are currently unemployed.

The Aghada man yesterday admitted last year’s All Star nominees Paul Kerrigan and Donncha O’Connor as well as midfielder Alan O’Connor are currently looking for work.

Counihan, who almost went as far as saying “emigration” is a banned word in the Rebel camp, agreed to mention each of the trio’s names to the media in the hope the publicity might assist them in finding jobs.

“Paul Kerrigan is out of work at the minute, Donncha is out of work at the minute,” said Counihan, speaking at the launch of the 2011 Allianz Leagues in Croke Park. “Alan O’Connor is struggling to find work as well.

“That’s a big challenge. People talk about pressure but if I told you guys you don’t have a job to go to in the morning that’s real pressure. Hopefully, we can do something. It’s a big county and the three individuals I’ve spoken about are very good, dedicated people in regards to what they do.”

Counihan won’t even countenance the possibility of the three players having to leave Ireland to find work.

“We hopefully won’t go down that road (emigration) and we avoid that talk. The reality is guys have responsibilities and commitments and these must be met.”

On a brighter note, Counihan has welcomed the prospect of going into the GAA’s secondary competition with there being no changes in the playing rules. He has called on the GAA to restrict the experimentation to pre-season and third level competitions.

“Managers and players have a difficult enough job to manage the situation without having to manage change at the level of competition so it’s a positive. We still have to go back and look at some things but we need to do it through the third-level and the likes of the McGrath Cup.”

Counihan believes there is major room for improvement in how the rules are interpreted by officials.

“There’s a lot of work to be done in terms of interpretation from the referee’s perspective that there is consistency,” he said. “We’ve raised that at manager level whereby assessors need to be assessed. If you get a video of a game, bring in 10 assessors and ask them to assess the game (the question is) are you getting consistency across the board? The issue for managers is consistency and that’s the challenge for the association in terms of the organisation of referees. Are we getting consistency across the board?”

However, Counihan has highlighted issues with the new rule restricting panels to 26 players.

“The reality is when you come into training you like the idea of having 30 players you’re normally getting into a game situation with and when you’ve only 26 that’s a limiting factor. But, it’s there now and we have to do the best we can.” Counihan has also voiced his support for the current format of the Allianz Leagues.

Roscommon will put forward a motion at April’s Congress calling for a return to the autumn start but the All-Ireland winning boss is against the proposal.

“The current format is good,” he said. “I played in the old system whereby it was October and November and I don’t think it worked. There was no continuity whereas now you’re in at the start of January and you’re moving on.

“In terms of the shutdown of November and December, a lot has been made of that and I can understand it coming from counties who have been knocked out early in the championship. You’d expect players to follow individual programmes and come back in reasonable shape.”

Cork begin the defence of their Division One title when they travel to Tralee next Sunday with much anticipation about the prospect of Kerry forming a guard of honour, as is the customary gesture shown to the All-Ireland champions, for their keen rivals on their home patch.

“I’m not looking at it as anything special,” smiled Counihan. “I don’t know whether there will be one or not. What’s important is that the game itself and that we get a performance there.”

While Paul Galvin is out of the game with a hip injury, Counihan confirmed his 2010 nemesis and dual player Eoin Cadogan will be available for the league opener. Despite being named as the vice-captain for Denis Walsh’s hurlers this year, the Douglas man will juggle both codes again.

“Myself and Denis Walsh have worked out an arrangement and we’ll be working away on that,” stated Counihan. “There’s no doubt it’ll be on a 50-50 basis.”

He added: “We have a number of injuries. Some guys will be getting opportunities and the hope will be to come up to the standard. Graham (Canty) is injured, Anthony Lynch is injured, Alan Quirke, Michael Shields isn’t available (on holiday abroad). That’s a reasonable amount.”