Aidan Walsh, Conor Lehane, and Christopher Joyce will not feature for Cork hurlers next year

It’s understood that further changes to the panel and backroom team are in the pipeline, including an influx of young players

Aidan Walsh, Conor Lehane, and Christopher Joyce. Pictures: Inpho

Several experienced players will not be involved with the Cork senior hurling team next season, the Irish Examiner understands.

Aidan Walsh, Conor Lehane, Christopher Joyce, and Chris O’Leary are among those who will not figure in red and white next season, joining long-serving goalkeeper Anthony Nash, who announced his retirement from the inter-county game last Sunday afternoon.

Walsh, a Kanturk clubmate of Anthony Nash, won an All-Ireland senior football medal in 2010 with Cork and collected the Young Footballer of the Year and All-Star awards that same season.

Four years later he won a Munster Senior Hurling Championship medal with Cork against Limerick in the last provincial final played in the old Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Conor Lehane has been involved with the Cork senior hurlers since 2011 and has Munster Senior Championship medals from 2014, 2017, and 2018.

He played in the All-Ireland final and replay of 2013, the same year he helped Midleton to the Cork SHC title with a man of the match display in the final against Sarsfields: Lehane hit 2-10 in that county final.

Christopher Joyce also played in Cork’s run to the 2013 All-Ireland final defeat by Clare, and like Lehane has three Munster SHC medals.

The Na Piarsaigh defender came back after a serious knee injury sustained on duty with Cork against Dublin in 2015, and last year he tore the cruciate ligament in his other year in a club game.

It’s understood that further changes to the panel and backroom team are in the pipeline.

Niall Cashman, Sean Twomey, Daire O’Leary, and Ger Millerick have joined the Cork senior panel, as have Tadhg Deasy, Alan Connolly, Daniel Meaney, and Shane Barrett.

The Cork senior management have also brought up to ten young players into a development squad in order to prepare them for senior inter-county competition in the coming seasons.