Alan O’Connor: There is plenty desire in Cork

For Alan O’Connor, the fire burns as strong as it ever did.

This Sunday marks his seventh championship visit to Fitzgerald Stadium, in what is his third coming with the Cork footballers. And similar to the winding roads he navigates thrice weekly to get himself from Kealkill in West Cork up to the city for training, his has been quite the journey travelled.

After nine seasons spent on the inter-county carousel, he was fairly sure he’d seen it all. Then he found himself before a hearings committee above in Croke Park on the Wednesday night before Cork’s Munster semi-final. Most felt his challenge on Waterford’s Brian Looby was an open-and-shut case. O’Connor didn’t. And having never before received a straight red card during his time with Cork, he wanted to avail of the opportunity to clear his name. We’ll come back to that later on.