FORMER CORK CAPTAIN Pat Mulcahy believes that the Rebels have fallen “ten years behind” hurling’s top counties.
Mulcahy, coach of the Cork IT Fitzgibbon Cup team, insists that there’s a “major problem” on Leeside following the senior team’s exit from the All-Ireland series against Galwaylast Sunday.
The Newtownshandrum clubman says that a number of questions need to be answered by Leeside top brass.
“The big focus now is on development squads but the question is why are we ten years behind?” said the two-time All-Ireland senior medallist.
“Why have we not produced? Those are questions I would like to see answered.
“Donal Og Cusack has some very valid points but I don’t know if development squads will answer those questions.
“This year is the first year that the minors had a product from development squads at U14, U15 and U16 and the Cork county board has been championing that quite a bit but why didn’t we have this a decade ago?
“Cork have always been strong traditionally but why aren’t we at the cutting edge now?
“We have over 240 clubs in the county, Limerick have somewhere in the region of 80 and Clare have 60 so why are we so far behind given the size of the county?
“I was at the Cork-Limerick minor match (Munster semi-final) and while we were unlucky, we can’t be unlucky every year.
“Looking at the stats of the last number of years (as presented by Cusack on The Sunday Game) doesn’t reflect well.
“We won a pile of Munster minor championships between 1964 and 1977 (eleven in total with six All-Irelands) and a a result we won three-in-row All-Ireland senior titles in the late 70s.
“We also won All-Ireland minortitles in 1995, 1998 and 2001 and that led to a senior title in ’99 and four All-Ireland finals from 2003-2006.
“Success at senior level follows on if you look at the history books.”
Iconic yes, but not exactly aesthetic
@Gareth Ward: ah I dunno, I like it. I was there last year for a game and it has that big football feel about it that you don’t get from modern stadia. That being said, the proposals for the new ground look unreal
@Gareth Ward: moron . One of the greatest stadiums in the world. I have been in most of the famous ones except the azteca. Abosolute philistine to suggest this is not one of the greatest .
@Shane Gill: i want to get to an inter game b4 they bulldoze it.are tickets hard got? My 2nd fav stadium ever since cameroon v argentina italia 90!!
@Nigel Delaney: didn’t have any trouble with tickets. Went to an AC game v Sampdoria and got tickets from the ticket centre at the ground the day of the game.
@Shane Gill: thanks lad.Trish is mad to get to Milan too.win win!!
Fabulous stadium.
Was there a while ago. It’s definitely seen better days.
Amazing that two internationally renowned teams playing the same sport can use common sense and share a stadium.
The Aviva and Croke Park are underutilized assets, money going/gone towards paying the debts could have been put into grassroots.
At least the Bertie Bowl wasn’t built
@Goban Saor: By “sharing” you mean the professional rugby and soccer guys want to use the facilities of their more successful amateur counterparts.
@Goban Saor: They are only still doing it now due to Italian politics making it really difficult for many teams to get approval to build stadiums in Italy. A lot of the stadium are owned by City Council who don’t want to lose out on rent and have empty stadium.
@Seamus Cummins: That’s problem in a nutshell. Napoli have had same issues with renovating Stadio San Paolo. Naples Municipal Council owns the stadium and doesn’t want to pay for upgrades.