Kieran Kingston gives youth a chance in Cork hurling panel

After releasing a number of very established players earlier in the week he has brought four young players into his 30-man championship squad.

Kieran Kingston is determined to give youth its fling during his tenure as Cork hurling boss, writes John Horgan.

After releasing a number of very established players earlier in the week he has brought four young guns into his 30-man championship squad.

Sean O’Donoghue from Inniscarra, Mikey O’Halloran from the Rockies, Chris O’Leary (Valley Rovers) and Newcestown’s Luke Meade have been brought into the equation while four more, Mark Coleman (Blarney), Shane Kingston (Douglas), Darragh Fitzgibbon (Charleville) and David Lowney (Clonakilty) will be involved from time to time after the Leaving Cert.

Kingston today paid tribute to the five players – Shane O’Neill, Pa Cronin, Paudie O’Sullivan, Cian McCarthy and Stephen Moylan – who had departed the panel this week and was at pains to stress the contribution they had made to Cork hurling.

“It’s important for me to recognise the lads we released and the sacrifice and commitment they gave to Cork hurling over a long period.

“I would also like to stress that the panel door is never closed and it will be continuously up for review.”

The Cork boss said that developing young players and giving them an opportunity to play for Cork was something he felt very strongly about.

“Absolutely, on the panel of 30 now we have six who are under 21 and five who are under 20. The key message that we would like to make in all of this is that we want to be competitive and challenging in 2016 as well as having an eye on the future which I think is very important.

“We might not have been that successful at minor level recently but that’s not saying we didn’t have good players, we had and we have looked at the minor teams of the past three years and brought in a number of players from those teams who we believe will have something to offer going forward.

“There are no guarantees of course but we believe they will gain a lot of experience from the older lads and we’d hope they come through. As well as doing the best we can do this year we believe we have a responsibility going forward.’’

Meanwhile, it was stated in yesterday’s edition that Cian McCarthy had left the panel himself but, by all accounts, this wasn’t so and we are happy to clarify that matter.

This story first appeared in the Evening Echo.