Cork players will ‘be burnt out by 20’

Cork coaching officer, Kevin O’Donovan, told county delegates yesterday that “sacrifices” would have to be made, and structures would have to be examined, to stop young players “burning out and being finished at 20.”

“We have some boys playing with 11 teams, and, under the new strategic plan in the new year, Rebel Og will have to be looked at again,” he told those attending the board’s annual convention. “We are missing out, in terms of integrating everything together. What strikes me, at the strategic meetings, at conventions, and so on, is that we keep pouring more and more into the pot.

“We want to add teams and competitions, but we’re forgetting the same boy is playing in all of those. We must make sacrifices to get a better product, for want of a better term, at the end.