Cork players are happy with Fermoy facility, says Ger Lane
In Saturday’s Irish Examiner, the recently-retired Paddy Kelly revealed Peadar Healy’s men had set up a gym in a warehouse close to a pitch in Fermoy. It was mentioned in the piece that the players had filled the building with gym equipment and painted the area themselves.
Having spoken with the board’s logistics official, Lane said he can confirm that items were neither paid for nor installed by the footballers. He also said “not a drop of paint” was brushed by them.
“The footballers had difficulties with training facilities last year and came up with the proposal that for the three or four months of the winter period they would train in Fermoy and establish a gym around the corner.
“The county board have paid the rent for the building and equipped it with gym equipment from Páirc Uí Chaoimh plus new equipment that will be going into the new centre of excellence there. All of that was delivered on site by our people.
“The group is extremely happy with the arrangements. They had been travelling to Mallow and this is more or less the same distance from Cork city. You see by the manager’s comments after Sunday’s game (the defeat to Kerry) that he believes it is a fine facility, which I have visited myself.
“There was an indication that the footballers had paid for it themselves but that was not the case. The players are happy and there hasn’t been a murmur of discontent with it or the pitch. It’s a pretty new building too and very well decked out.”
Meanwhile, manager Healy has confirmed that Paul Kerrigan will continue as Cork football captain for 2017.
Kerrigan assumed the captaincy following Nemo Rangers’ county championship victory at the end of the 2015 season and the 30-year- old will resume the role when the Rebels travel to Galway for their Division 2 league opener on February 5.
The long-serving forward was one of 16 Cork panellists excused from McGrath Cup duty this January, the majority of whom Healy expects to be fit for that trip to Pearse Stadium.
Eoin Cadogan, who underwent surgery on his Achilles tendon last August, is their main injury concern, with Healy commenting that the Cork full-back “won’t be back for a while”.
Healy added: “Tom Clancy (Clonakilty), Colm O’Neill, Tomás Clancy (Fermoy), Aidan Walsh, these are fellas we’d all hope will be back.
“We’ve Alan O’Connor back, he’s doing a big block of fitness at the moment.
“We need a few games before we head for Galway. We are in a real big block of training at the moment. We’ve 15 or 16 players out who are either injured or conditioning. We need more games.”
Cork U21 pair Seán Powter and Gary Murphy were impressive performers in the respective outings against Tipperary and Kerry, with Castletownbere native Murphy kicking three points when sprung from the bench at Mallow on Sunday. Healy, though, confirmed that both players will not be available for the Galway fixture.
“We won’t have them until the second round against Kildare. Gary did well [against Kerry]. They gave us great energy and they have certainly been putting their hands up for selection.”
The manager added: “Obviously, we want to get out of Division 2, but the first two games are away, they’re big pressure games. We’ll have to put our best foot forward against Galway and Kildare. We’ll need one win there for sure anyway. You’ve seen some teams go down to Division 2 and they find it very hard to get out again, it’s a very competitive league.
“Last year, there were four teams finished up on six points, we were one of them. One went through to the semi-finals and we went down, it was that tight. The first two games could make or break us. It is important to get points on the board.”
A Nash (Kanturk); J Sheehan (Erin’s Own), C Spillane (Castlelyons), S O’Donoghue (Inniscarra); C O Leary (Valley Rovers), L McLoughlin (Kanturk), C Joyce (Na Piarsaigh); C Murphy ( Mallow), D Kearney (Sarsfields), D Brosnan (Glen Rovers), L Meade (Newcestown), M O’Halloran (Blackrock), M Cahalane (Bandon), P Horgan (Glen Rovers), R O’Flynn (Erin’s Own).
Patrick Collins (Ballinhassig), S McDonnell (Glen Rovers), David Griffin (Carrigaline), C Walsh (St Finbarr’s), M Coleman (Blarney), B Hennessey (St Finbarr’s), D Fitzgibbon (Charleville), S Kingston (Douglas), A Cadogan (Douglas), C Lehane (Midleton), S O’Keeffe (Blackrock).
