Dolan right not to dive into transfer market, says City assistant manager
He accepted that some of Cork’s followers were surprised that Dolan had signed only one newcomer, Kevin Doyle, the former U20 international who played for Dolan at Pat’s last season. Said O’Connor: “I think Pat Dolan’s approach has been very fair. I have been with Cork only eight or nine days, so I do not know how good every fellow can be. It is only right that he gives the players a chance to prove themselves. You cannot do that in less than three or four weeks if fellows are to get a genuine chance.”
Cork finished fourth last season and their late season drift out of the Championship race came as a disappointment to their enthusiastic fans. The popular opinion was that a new manager would make major changes. O’Connor explained some of the reasons why this is not so.
“The fitness results on the players are very encouraging,” he said. “The players were tested in the University of Limerick on March 8 and they were tested again this week and the latest set of results have shown a fairly significant improvement. That vindicates what we have been doing in terms of fitness training.” O’Connor, who was a surprise appointment because he is based in Limerick, more than 60 miles from Cork, spoke of his reaction to his first week’s work with his new charges: “I have been impressed with the size of the squad of players in training, up to 27 players. Quite a number of them are players of real quality.”
O’Connor’s relative success on a shoestring budget in Limerick clearly impressed Dolan, who constantly stresses his admiration for honesty of approach and enthusiasm for the game. O’Connor is 33 and unmarried and the fact that he is without ties obviously makes it easier for him to commute for training sessions and matches. He said: “I would not have taken the job if I felt I would not be comfortable travelling up and down for training sessions.
It is fine for me now, I go to Cork for coaching and Limerick for working and I can combine them both without any problem.”
So how will Dolan and O’Connor share responsibilities and maintain lines of demarcation? “Pat is the manager. We will discuss team selection and I will be able to look at that from a manager’s point of view. I will have my own opinions and I will give my opinions to him, but he will make the decisions and he will select the team.”
Cork have a big squad but fewer professionals than Bohs and Shels, so I wondered whether this will leave them at a disadvantage? “Professional is a state of mind,” he said. “We won the League Cup two years ago with Limerick and we did not have one professional player in the team.
What we have are players who are very committed to the game, players who look after themselves away from the game, that is being professional. The fact that we do not have as many full-time players as some of the Dublin sides is not very significant.”
O’Connor was very much a one-man band at Limerick, so how will he cope with being second-in-command ? “I have goals and my number one goal is to do what I can for Cork and to learn what I can from the players and from Pat Dolan,” he said.
“My ambition is to see how best we can improve the players individually and collectively and to turn them into a better side.”
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