Seán Óg return no big deal, insists Barry-Murphy

CORK hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy says the reinstatement of Seán Óg Ó hAilpín to the squad is “not a big deal” as far as he and his selectors are concerned.

Ó hAilpín was dropped by former manager Denis Walsh ahead of the 2011 championship, but Barry-Murphy and his selectors included the 2005 Cork All-Ireland-winning captain in their training panel.

Barry-Murphy said: “Seán Óg is part of an extended panel for training... When we sat down as selectors we felt that on the basis of what was available, he might have something to offer.

“It’s not a huge deal as far as we’re concerned — it’s a training panel, and Seán Óg knows, having been out for a year, that it may not be easy for him to get back, but we feel he brings qualities and we’ll assess it going forward.”

Regarding the availability to the hurlers of Cork senior footballers Ciaran Sheehan and Aidan Walsh, Barry-Murphy pointed out that his own dual career was not comparable to the present day situation.

“The dual player situation is awkward in that my experience, or Brian Corcoran’s, or Seán Óg’s, is irrelevant because the back door at club and county level changed the scene totally,” says Barry-Murphy.

“The number of games and level of preparation required means it’s very difficult to do both nowadays.

“Ciaran and Aidan would be phenomenal assets to have — let’s be honest, they’d be on any intercounty panel — and we’d love to have them available, but I’m fully aware they’re with the footballers. All we’ll be doing is keeping the door open and hopefully at some stage they may be available to us.”

Barry-Murphy also said that some promising youngsters — separate to those on the training panel — have been notified and told they may figure on the senior team later in 2012: “We’ve identified a number of players outside the panel and they’ve been told they may be in our plans later in the year — some very promising young players.”