O’Connor rubbishes claims Rebels are on the slide

Cork forward Donncha O’Connor doesn’t agree with observers who feel the Rebels have slipped down the Gaelic football rankings with the departure of so many veterans.

The Leesiders lost several members of their 2010 All-Ireland-winning team over the winter, but O’Connor is bullish about his side’s chances this season.

“A lot of people might think that (Cork have slipped back) but we’re going on, we’re training away and we see the young lads coming in who are nearly as good as the lads that are gone.

“The pundits might think we’re slipping but we’re going out to win every game — Brian (Cuthbert, new manager) said that at the start of the year and hopefully that’s what we’ll do.”

Those retirements mean there are a lot of fresh faces in red and white, but O’Connor says the atmosphere in the Cork dressing-room hasn’t deteriorated one iota.

“Strangely, it’s very good. I thought at the start it might be a bit different, that it might be quiet inside there. But most fellas know each other from club football, and everyone knows every fella in the backroom team and what they have done before. It’s not one bit awkward. It’s exciting.

“We have a lot of good U21s there from the last few years, the likes of Mark Collins and Brian Hurley and so on. Some of them you could say are nearly dead certs come the championship, but if there are new lads coming through and some of the older lads are going well then there’s pressure on everyone.

“The likes of Paul Kerrigan and Paddy Kelly will hopefully be pushing on too by the end of the league.”

The Ballydesmond man said he wasn’t too inhibited by the new black card disciplinary system which came into force last weekend: “I think we were, maybe, at the start, but as soon as the game started I didn’t even think about it. If you had a mistimed challenge it might put you under pressure but the minute the game started I didn’t think about it.”

The game, a 3-22 to 0-7 win over Limerick IT in the McGrath Cup quarter-final, wasn’t much of a challenge for either new or established players, he admitted.

“We were just trying to get off to a winning start,” he said.

“We’ve been training hard for the last few weeks and it was good to start off with a win, it gives the younger lads a boost.

“There’s a few of them there and they’re eager and training hard. With the lads that have retired and gone there are opportunities for other lads.

“There wasn’t much of a test for them Sunday but they’re showing the right attitude.”