Cork administrator defends facilities as county teams get ‘95% of what they want’

Cork GAA senior administrator Diarmuid O’Donovan has launched a robust defence of training facilities in the county, insisting that Cork teams are not at the behest of clubs when chasing a pitch for training.

With no centre of excellence available to Cork’s inter-county teams, and Páirc Uí Rinn having been largely off-limits for training purposes for the opening two months of this year, managers Kieran Kingston and Peadar Healy were left scrambling for pitches as the inclement weather saw the gates locked on several venues used by Cork’s senior teams in recent years.

Former Cork hurler Pat Mulcahy claimed in Tuesday’s Irish Examiner that Kingston’s squad “had nowhere to train” prior to the Allianz hurling league, labelling the facilities shortage as a “disgrace”.