Allen keen to avoid talk of treble

Cork manager John Allen has played down the significance of his side's shot at an All-Ireland treble today, insisting that if his men prevail against Kilkenny "it will only be a statistic" for hurling's record books.

Ever since his team accounted for Waterford in last month's SHC semi-final, Allen has been keen to flitter away any talk of a three-in-a-row.

The St. Finbarr's clubman has presided over nine successive championship wins as manager of his county, and 13 if you count his role as selector under Donal O'Grady during the 2004 season.

But the successes of '04 and '05 are well and truly out of Allen's mind now.

He explained: "We're preparing to win the 2006 final. The treble thing is only for the historians. It's only a statistic.

"We started our year in Cape Town on December 31 last and hopefully we will finish it on a high at Croke Park this weekend."

Allen's playing career had its own highs - he won an All-Ireland Under-21 medal with Cork in 1976, came on as a substitute in the 1978 All-Ireland hurling final against Kilkenny when Cork completed an historic treble and also picked up a National Football League medal in 1980.

He is humble enough to admit that he has been fortunate in his managerial career to date.

Allen insisted: "I never foresaw when I got a phone call in 1999 to come down and help out as a masseur that I would be managing a team to an All-Ireland final.

"I pinch myself every day. Of course I do.

Sure I put a lot of work into it but so do all other managers, but they aren’t as fortunate as I’ve been."

The pressure is certainly on Cork as they bid to enter the realms of hurling immortality, but Pat Mulcahy and his players were not letting the strain show yesterday when they were spotted having a puck about over some cars in Donnybrook.