Diarmuid O’Sullivan teaches ‘dark arts’ to Cork hurlers

Cork hurling selector Diarmuid O’Sullivan revealed how he trains with the present squad to teach the players the “dark arts” of the game.

O’Sullivan, who is part of new manager Kieran Kingston’s backroom team, has been “astounded” as to how the game has progressed in the six years since his inter-county retirement and while labelling the commitment of the current crop as “incredible”, he says the “dark arts” have become forgotten tricks of the trade.

“I still take an active part in inter-county training with the lads, not because I want to make a comeback, but the fact I’m trying to teach them the dark arts which have kind of got lost on a few of them,” disclosed O’Sullivan at the Rebel Óg annual awards banquet.

“The athletes that are now performing on the inter-county stage are immense, all I can do is take my hat off to them.

“A lot of people down here won’t really appreciate the amount of effort and commitment they are actually putting in. Every night we go training, I look at them and say, ‘these guys are incredible’.”

O’Sullivan entered the inter-county management arena when taking charge of the Cork U16s in 2014 and believes there is undue pressure being forced upon the county’s underage hurling teams such has been Cork’s failings at minor and U21 level in recent years — the county has not won a Munster title in either grade since 2008.

“The last Saturday in August of 2015 [when Cork won all seven underage hurling tournaments]; it was history created, but unfortunately, because we are that bit further behind we need to have a Saturday like that in August every year for the next five, six years.

“We need to dominate that day for the next 30, 40 years. That is just the competitive nature inside me.

“People are quick to highlight that Cork haven’t been successful at U16, minor, or U21 over the last number of years. It is adding a lot of pressure, no more so than the pressure that was put on, for example, last year’s minor hurling team when they went up to Limerick [in a Munster semi-final].

“Wonderful group of guys, but the pressure that was forced upon a good hurling side, it may have caught up with them on the night because it was seen that if Cork didn’t come back with a win out of this that we were going to be back a further five years.”