Sean Óg not part of Denis Walsh's plans

[theskull1]

As much as Sean Og was far from corks worst player, is he not their oldest (outfield anyway)? I certainly thought that he looked exposed on alot of occasions in the last two years not taking away that facing the ball he can still hurl. Maybe DW thought he would give Sean Og the chance to bow out gracefully and gave him the time to announce his retirement (which didn't happen)? I'm sure DW had zero intentions of stirring the pot.

Anyway there's more to the GAA and life the intercounty. Sean Og will have more time for his club and whatever other interests he has.

[INDIANA]

I actually met the man himself yesterday briefly and commiserated with him. He was quite philisosphical about it! Nothing he can do I suppose! Also from my sources close to the team, it is clear that he is the only one that was dropped from the panel and this is the source of surprise/anger down here.  The older one   gets the  harder it is to recover from injuries and his hamstrings were always giving him trouble.

Leaving all the other stuff aside, from a Hurling perspective, this is a strange one - Walsh doesn't strike me as the 'striking back' kind if you'll excuse the pun, so why drop SOOH at this stage?

He's evidently not doing a mass clearout, SOOH was far from Cork's worst player this year and doesn't have the quality to replace him.

Something not right about this one. Why Sean Og. unusual to cull first 15 players. Makes no sense to me.

[orangeman]

I'm watching 2007 quarter final Cork v Waterford.


Sean Og lorded it

Class act.

[imtommygunn]

He was great. The one thing that always struck me about him was that he had good hurling ability but great athletic ability.

Athletic abillity goes a lot quicker than hurling though and that was why I always believed he was always going to have a shorter hurling career lifespan.

He always lorded it over Dan Shanahan was something which always struck me.

[Kevin]

Can I also announce my retirement? Joe Dooley won't return my calls.

Not a chance AZ. my preference is that you sit on the fence on a yearly basis at about this time of year and keep us all in suspense. Give it the famous one more year anyway!

[orangeman]

Sean Og had had a fine season this year. He stuffed Noel Macgrath (the all star) in the first round in Ceausescu Park (Pairc ui Chaoimh) and was one of the only players for Cork to hold his own against Kilkenny later in the year. He is stronger, fitter, and more clever a player than anyone contending for his position. I am all in favour of the best man getting the position; no favours should be shown to anyone, that's the nature of the sport. If someone can tell me however who at present should take Sean Ogs position then I'll show you a fool. There's no one. He should be asked back to training and if in training he is still the best man for that position, then the position should be his, ruling him out now is stupid at best and sinister at worst. Look at what Counihan did this year with experienced impact subs like Nicholas Murphy. Despite his otherwise dubious tactics this proved in my opinion to be a masterstroke. When Canty and Murphy were introduced in the final, it turned the game. Donal Og who was probably the only other cork player who could have earned an all star this year will be next. It's the vendetta by way of the puppet all over again. The Cork county board and friends would rather not win an all Ireland for twenty years than give up the chance to get even. What a despicable way to treat as fine a sportsman and role model as Sean Og.

At least the strike achieved something - the CB must really dislike the hurlers :

The Cork County Board have given current Cork football manager Conor Counihan their full endorsement to continue in the role.

Counihan has been offered control of Cork for another two years, in addition to this he has been handed the bonus of being able to choose his own panel of selectors.

Normally the Cork County Board would only offer a manager a one-year extenstion in the role; the two-year extension offer is evidence of Cork's desire to retain Counihan's services.

Counihan has, as yet, not commented on the offer from the county board. Cork press officer Ger Lane told The Irish Times: 'He's been offered the position for another two years, formally, and we would expect a decision from him within the next week to ten days.'

Lane continued: 'So look, we'd be hopeful now that he would stay on. In the past the board would also have had to approve his selectors, and that has sometimes created some difficulty. But we proposed a motion where he would be given a free hand to choose his own selectors.

'Although is he does continue there's no reason to believe that he won't go with the same selection team again.'

[heffo]

Sean Og had had a fine season this year. He stuffed Noel Macgrath (the all star) in the first round in Ceausescu Park (Pairc ui Chaoimh) and was one of the only players for Cork to hold his own against Kilkenny later in the year. He is stronger, fitter, and more clever a player than anyone contending for his position. I am all in favour of the best man getting the position; no favours should be shown to anyone, that's the nature of the sport. If someone can tell me however who at present should take Sean Ogs position then I'll show you a fool. There's no one. He should be asked back to training and if in training he is still the best man for that position, then the position should be his, ruling him out now is stupid at best and sinister at worst. Look at what Counihan did this year with experienced impact subs like Nicholas Murphy. Despite his otherwise dubious tactics this proved in my opinion to be a masterstroke. When Canty and Murphy were introduced in the final, it turned the game. Donal Og who was probably the only other cork player who could have earned an all star this year will be next. It's the vendetta by way of the puppet all over again. The Cork county board and friends would rather not win an all Ireland for twenty years than give up the chance to get even. What a despicable way to treat as fine a sportsman and role model as Sean Og.

At least the strike achieved something - the CB must really dislike the hurlers :

The Cork County Board have given current Cork football manager Conor Counihan their full endorsement to continue in the role.

Counihan has been offered control of Cork for another two years, in addition to this he has been handed the bonus of being able to choose his own panel of selectors.

Normally the Cork County Board would only offer a manager a one-year extenstion in the role; the two-year extension offer is evidence of Cork's desire to retain Counihan's services.

Counihan has, as yet, not commented on the offer from the county board. Cork press officer Ger Lane told The Irish Times: 'He's been offered the position for another two years, formally, and we would expect a decision from him within the next week to ten days.'

Lane continued: 'So look, we'd be hopeful now that he would stay on. In the past the board would also have had to approve his selectors, and that has sometimes created some difficulty. But we proposed a motion where he would be given a free hand to choose his own selectors.

'Although is he does continue there's no reason to believe that he won't go with the same selection team again.'

It just shows you the eternal class of a fella like Frank Murphy  - under his watch they win another AI - he doesn't look for any credit, no lectures to the media, just goes about his business quietly.

Makes an offer to Counihan and has the respect and sense to give him two weeks to make a decision.

I wonder would Sean Óg be available to replace him when Frank retires soon enough - though Sean Óg probably wouldn't be in a position to accept a position of such servitude along with the massive pay cut.

[Reillers]

He was great. The one thing that always struck me about him was that he had good hurling ability but great athletic ability.

Athletic abillity goes a lot quicker than hurling though and that was why I always believed he was always going to have a shorter hurling career lifespan.

He always lorded it over Dan Shanahan was something which always struck me.

It was always a bit special watching Sean Og picking the ball out of the air and storming forward. Always got the crowd going. Will be a bit strange watching Cork go out without him. Still all careers need to come to an end, sad that it ended like this though.

[orangeman]

Billy Keane's take on the whole thing :


Ultimate Corkman Sean Og harshly cast asideBy Billy Keane


Saturday October 23 2010

Last Saturday morning, Sean Og O hAilpin made his way to meet Cork manager Denis Walsh for the player's end of year evaluation.

Sean Og was under the impression his place was nailed down and that he was about to be asked to mentor the younger players who would be brought into the Cork panel.

Walsh retired Sean Og. He didn't jump, he was pushed. No doubt about that. There were some on the county board who thought Sean Og would announce his retirement and there would be no mention of the fact that he was dropped but Sean Og wanted it to be known he didn't walk out on Cork. That was his sole motivation. This was no act of petty revenge or bitterness.

So was he wronged? For sure Sean Og is not the hurler he used to be. It's all about pace at the highest level. You can train for everything else. Weights will bulk you up and long runs will build stamina but when your speed goes, there's very little you can do about it.

Wing-backs are the explosive 'out of the blocks' men but Sean Og never drank or smoked and his physical age lags a few years behind the DOB on his birth cert.

Sean Og is the only one of the boys of the old brigade to have been dropped (Walsh has yet to meet John Gardiner). Is it Sean Og's fault then that Cork didn't win the All-Ireland? Sean Og was terrible in the league final. There wouldn't have been a word if he was left on the bench after that. He was good against Tipp when Cork wiped out the All-Ireland champions and good too against Kilkenny on a day when he was one of Cork's best half-dozen players.

It's not just the dropping of a hurler. As one friend of his put it: "Sean Og was always going to try to be the best Corkman he could possibly be."

He was up against it. Cork is no more racist that anywhere else. Less so in fact, but just one bigot can inflict serious hurt on a sensitive kid.

This kid learned fast. He was a top-class hurler and footballer at under- age. He became fluent in Irish and picked up a north side blas.

Just as Donal Og Cusack made it easier for gay players to become accepted within the GAA, Sean Og fought the fight for the Irish who have, as a Cork friend put it, 'a 12-month tan'.

Sean Og's legacy is that we know him not by the colour of his skin but by the colour of his jersey.

Yes, he is more than just a hurler.

Our good friend Sean Healy, a good player too, works with Sean Og in Ulster Bank. He brought his colleague to Listowel to speak to the under-age teams.

"Why didn't ye bring someone from Kerry?" asked one cheeky boy and Sean Og heard every word. Two hours later the cheeky boy declared Sean Og was the best coach ever. His integrity burns through his eyes. Honesty is his brand, almost to the point of naivete, but that is his way and he knows no other.

My brother-in-law Simon, a Corkman, had an expenses envelope ready for Sean Og. A few quid for petrol. And something to cover the cost of a nice meal. Sean Og wouldn't hear of it. "Give it to the club", he said. This is no Wayne Rooney we're dealing with here. No piece of meat either.

The O hAilpin family are devastated for Sean Og. Setanta is in Australia and we heard he's feeling it worst of all.

So far away -- when you need to be back home in the kitchen with your family talking things out. I am sure there are many of you who have family in Oz. It's a great country and all that, but there's no catching a Ryanair flight back home for the weekend.

There are some in Cork who maintain Frank Murphy, secretary of the county board, is behind the sacking as some sort or revenge for Sean Og's role in the hurling strikes.

Criticised

I have often criticised Frank Murphy here but my information is this was a solely a hurling decision and Murphy had nothing to do with it.

This can't have been easy for Walsh. He can't pick all the players, but Walsh is in serious trouble in the dressing-room. Sean Og wasn't a big talker but he had a presence and was very popular among the players.

There will be no strikes and there will be no public utterances, but Walsh, who is an honourable man with no ulterior motives, may well have made a serious error of judgement.

If Cork win in 2011 most of the fans will see the dropping as part of the inevitable cycle of rise, decline and fall. That's sport isn't it? Winning is like confession. Winners are absolved from all past sins, but there's no penance.

I was in Cork this week trying to gauge the reaction from the man in the street, only in this case it was the two men covered in paint in Lennox's chipper.

"Are ye doing a bit of decorating lads?" I asked.

These finely honed skills of intuitive and deductive reasoning persuaded the paper to send me to Cork in the first place. My hunch was right. They were good fellas. Chatty. It's a Cork thing. It's even in the way people make eye contact in the street. In most other cities they stare at the tips of their shoes. One of the decorators was an All-Ireland club winner and he had played against the great man.

"Is his pace gone? Was that it?" I asked.

"A bit alright but the power makes up for it. And he's a real Corkman."

"Define a real Corkman," I said.

"Tell him about the plane," suggested his pal in a Munster jersey.

"Ah yeah. We were after landing in Dublin Airport and there was this old couple from Cork in front of us. The big blue signs at the emigration checkpoint read EU and non--EU. The two stopped, puzzled, and the husband asks the wife 'Love, where's the Cork gate?'."

When Sean Og came home to Ireland he marched through the Cork gate. He had a contract. Not on paper, but the terms are there for all to see.

'I Sean Og O hAilpin will give my life to Cork hurling and in return we in Cork hurling agree to look after Sean Og.'

Sean Og didn't break his side of the bargain.

- Billy Keane

Irish Independent

[orangeman]

The 10 games that sealed Sean Og O hAilpin's Cork fate
By Martin Breheny


Saturday October 23 2010

DENIS Walsh might have thought it would pass off as closed season house-keeping when he freshened up the Cork panel by opening the back door to release some of the incumbent, while welcoming newcomers in through the front.

However, it was never going to be that simple once he informed such an iconic figure as Sean Og O hAilpin that he was not in his plans for 2011. O hAilpin never saw it coming, but, once he was informed of Walsh's decision, he moved quickly to spread the word far and wide that he had been dropped.

Using the GPA to issue a statement on his position, he made it clear that he wanted to continue with Cork and while that might be no longer an option, he would certainly play on with Na Piarsaigh. Commenting on his omission, he said that he "must respect the manager's decision in this regard." It was a polite way of saying: "he's made a massive c**k-up."

Significantly, when it came to thanking time it was reserved for the Cork players with whom O hAilpin shared a dressing-room for 14 years, the Cork supporters and GAA supporters in general.

He made no reference to any of the managers who had presided over Cork since the mid-1990s. He would have a good relationship with several of them, but he could hardly single them out and omit Gerald McCarthy -- who was at the centre of the players' strike controversy early last year -- and Walsh, who is hardly O hAilpin's favourite Corkman right now.


Well certainly not without re-opening old wounds. Opinions remain sharply divided in Cork as to whether Walsh made the right decision. They split into three distinct camps: those who insist that O hAilpin still has much to offer, those who believe that he -- and some others of the old guard -- should be moved out and those who feel that he should have been retained on the panel, while giving younger alternatives a chance to prove themselves in the National League.

Invaluable

The latter view is based on the premise that while O hAilpin is no longer the powerhouse of his prime days, his experience would still be invaluable. Besides, it could emerge that he is still the best No 7 in Cork next year.

If that turns out to be the case, it would be much easier to promote him from the back benches rather than recall him to a panel from which he had been omitted several months before. Walsh will know from the reaction this week that he has made what could turn out to a defining moment in his managerial career.

If Cork prosper without O hAilpin, he will be vindicated, but, if they struggle, he faces a difficult 2011 as his decision comes under repeated scrutiny, most of which will be critical.

So, why did Walsh make such a big call? One suspects it was arrived at on the basis that O hAilpin had slipped from the great heights he once occupied and that his decline would become even more pronounced next year.

In particular, Walsh would have referenced two crucial games this year, both of which went badly for O hAilpin. He struggled against Galway in the League final and against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final and while he wasn't the only Cork player in trouble in those games, Walsh obviously believed that they were sufficiently significant to persuade him that O hAilpin's big-time form tank had sprung an irreparable leak.

Granted, he did well in the Munster quarter-final, but Tipperary were so poor that day that Walsh himself -- whose inter-county career ended in the mid-90s -- would probably have thrived.

Ultimately, it probably came down to Walsh's assessment of the heights O hAilpin could reach in 2011 and he reached a decision that based on his performances against Galway and Kilkenny this year, they weren't going to be anywhere near high enough to help turn Cork into serious All-Ireland contenders.

Whether there's a better replacement remains to be seen, but clearly Walsh is prepared to take his chances.

- Martin Breheny

Irish Independent

[deiseach]

Oh. My. God. I've read some dung in my time, but this takes some beating:

I was in Cork this week trying to gauge the reaction from the man in the street, only in this case it was the two men covered in paint in Lennox's chipper.

"Are ye doing a bit of decorating lads?" I asked.

These finely honed skills of intuitive and deductive reasoning persuaded the paper to send me to Cork in the first place. My hunch was right. They were good fellas. Chatty. It's a Cork thing. It's even in the way people make eye contact in the street. In most other cities they stare at the tips of their shoes.

[heffo]

I see Kieran Shannon & Sean Óg reunited on the two year anniversary of their hatchet job on Ger Mac to further the campaign of 'Sean Óg going quitely'

We treated to such nuggets of the supposedly private conversation between Walsh & SOOH like the fact that Walsh is stepping down after next summer (nice of Sean Óg to break that story)

Class act SOOH. Class act.

[Declan]

Class act SOOH. Class act

Sarcasm and all that - I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times and was always impressed with him

Long-grass snipers so wrong about Seán Óg

TOM HUMPHRIES

LOCKER ROOM : A great servant of Cork and of hurling, Ó hAilpín's values stand in stark contrast to those of the likes of Wayne Rooney

HAVE TO stick one of those declaration of interest/namedrop lines in here at the foundation. I know Seán Óg Ó hAilpín. I'd like to think of him as my friend. I know I think of him as a hero.

I don't know Wayne Rooney. I have to admit something in him or something in me made me dislike him from the moment he hit my consciousness. Then again, sometimes he does something on the pitch and my jaw just drops. However much I wish it wouldn't, it, my mouth, just sags open like that of a Labrador lolling on a hot day. Wow.

Seán Óg. I saw a couple of blow-hard snipers pulling their weapons out from the comfortingly long grass of their anonymity this week in the chat rooms. Seán Óg was this and Seán Óg was that. They never met the man. And if they did and they think those things, well, then they met an imposter. The vast and overwhelming majority of those writing last week wrote of a remarkable man and a true laoch.

Seán Óg. 500 words. Never seen him on time for anything. The world tugs his sleeve constantly and he dallies with the world. Indulges it, treats every new face he meets to the sincere and genuine curiosity he has. I arranged to have a cup of coffee with him in Cork last year on the day 12,000 people marched in support of Seán Óg and his comrades. A cold Saturday afternoon. I stood in my anorak, jumper and gloves watching Seán Óg as the pa system for the rally got removed. And then the hired chairs went. And finally they took away the lorry. Darkness fell.

He was in a tracksuit and his teeth were chattering. Every Cork player had vanished back into the world but Seán Óg was still there signing things, and having his photo taken and being introduced to grandmothers and new-borns and asking where everyone was from and seeing if they had any Irish. For almost three hours. And I wanted to grab him by the ear and say will ya stop being so effin' decent and come for coffee for jaysus sake.

Those who think they know him and – by extension – think they know everything look at his endorsement work and conclude Seán Óg is greedy. Because he gets paid for taking a role in helping somebody sell something? Do we really demand such forelock-tugging subservience out of Gaelic athletes?

Let me tell a story which I have borrowed without permission from Gizzy Lyng in Wexford. Gizzy runs an annual hurling summer camp as Gaeilge every summer and a few years ago he asked Seán Óg if he would come across from Cork one afternoon and take the kids for a few drills, etc, trí  Gaeilge. Seán Óg said he was suffering from a leg injury but that he would do whatever he could. If Gizzy didn't hear from him again he could assume Seán Óg would arrive.

On the day, and only slightly late by Seán Óg standards, the car pulled in and Gizzy walked across to welcome his guest. Terrible pang of guilt when the door opened and Gizzy saw that in order to drive from Cork to Wexford without his injured leg seizing up Seán Óg had needed to be attached to some sort of pump contraction as he drove. Seán Óg, of course, made out as if the pump gadget was a pleasure which he had always wanted to sample and went ahead to spend the afternoon among the kids.

If you have seen Seán Óg coach kids you know the truth of it when I tell you that the root vegetables of the Cork County Board have made many mistakes but numero uno has been not been paying Seán Óg 100 grand a year to spend all day every day with the kids of Cork. He is infectious in his love for the game of hurling. And Cork has needed that.

Anyway. The session ended and Gizzy thanked his guest and the kids clapped and cheered and Gizzy slipped Seán Óg an envelope within which was a thank you card and a modest sum of cash for expenses and time. Seán Óg said: "There better not be money in this? Just a card from the kids."

And so he drove off leaving Gizzy and the students to wrap up for the day. Nearly an hour later, as Gizzy was finishing his chores, the familiar car arrived back in through the gate. Seán Óg. Money back into Gizzy Lyng's fist, head shaking and off into the evening with him again. Late for some place no doubt.

I've heard stories like that hundreds of times. From Antrim to Wexford to Mayo.

He came to our club and gave out medals and stayed all afternoon and evening, and when he was leaving, with nothing but a St Vincent's woolly hat as a thank you, he stood at his car boot for 10 minutes and emptied the contents as gifts for the awestruck kids. He looked at me happily in the end as I stood mortified at the virtual looting of his belongings and there was almost a look of panic on his face.

Jesus. And he looked into the empty boot and the only thing left was a shoe box. He grabbed the box. "Here a chara. Ger Hartmann made them for me." And he gave me the best pair of runners I have ever owned as a thank you for being asked to drive from Cork to Dublin and back to give out medals.

More than all that, though, I love the sincerity and honesty of Seán Óg's play and Seán Óg's words. People say he is a made hurler and a bit straight-backed and a bit this and a bit that. Meh! He is an extraordinary athlete not just in his conditioning but in the way his play expresses the glory of the game he plays, his exuberance, his intent of making it a simple game, his willingness to be subservient to the team ethic all the time.

When I bring kids to watch a match I love it to be a Cork match with Seán Óg at number seven because everything from the warm-up to the handshake afterwards is done with an intensity that never shortchanges the audience or his team or his talent. Never.

And so it is with his words. People have jumped on him from time to time in the course of the Cork strikes, etc, for the unhelpful nature of his verbal contributions. The truth is he doesn't do guile or back doors. So if you catch him and ask him to talk he'll give you as honest a version of how he is feeling as any person can give. Then we kick him to death.

Seán Óg's career, which should have and would have stretched to Tony Browne-type length, came to a finish with a three-minute meeting and a handshake last week. He had been milling everybody at Cork training all last year. Was working hard on being in the same condition next year. His last game? He was fit enough and good enough in August to play an All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park against the greatest team ever and to be one of Cork's top three performers on the day.

Weeks later he is out? Hurling lost something huge last week. Cork lost something irreplaceable. Not just a player but a presence, a force, an icon.

That was Monday. By Tuesday the sports pages were all Wayne Rooney, all the time. Wayne feels this. Wayne feels that. A volcanic rumbling in the hungry belly of a callow millionaire who figures he is hard done by. About to spew. About to erupt. Going, going, no, no he's staying. But at twice the money. Loyal! See! Break him open like a stick of rock and it says United all the way through.

And we buy it. The big show. The bullshit package deluxe. Some day soon Wayne will do what he is meant to do and score a couple of goals for United and peel away kissing the badge of the club he loves so deeply. A kiss was never so expensively bought.

Seán Óg would have liked to have been a professional athlete. I see his point, but I'd argue it with him to the death. Wayne Rooney is a professional athlete and he is the antithesis of romance, a hoor in his heart. If sport has no romance it has nothing. And without the boy from Rotuma there's a lot of romance gone for next year. And maybe Seán Óg would say, point proven. He would have been better to have been treated like a saleable commodity than a dispensable pawn.

He had earned the chance to be carried off on his shield wearing the red jersey that he has always loved. But in the long grass Seán Óg is greedy and Wayne Rooney is red till he is dead. And that's the difference. You don't let the door hit your arse on the way out from a three-minute termination meeting after 14 years of service. Or you watch a great club contorting itself into a knot of humiliation to satisfy your primal needs before you have delivered upon your promise.

Apparently that's the difference. Romantic Ireland is dead and gone, etc.

[Asal Mor]

I read this article yesterday and thought it was excellent - Spot on Tom. This is how I felt reading some of the posts on here last week, but wouldn't have Humphries' ability to express myself so well on paper. I never had the pleasure of meeting Sean Og but I knew from watching the total honesty of his hurling that this was no mercenary. Some people on here would want to take a look at themselves. They'd rather ignore all the great things Sean Og has done for the game ( on and off the pitch) and focus on 1 or 2 incidents where they perceive he acted badly. I wonder what these people have done for hurling - probably the same as myself - not a whole lot.

[theskull1]

Journalists paint pictures to represent individuals as they want them to be perceived (theres still a book to be written lets remember). I've no doubt alot of the eulogising is 110% true, but similar stories could be written about countless hundreds of GAA men up and down the country (Ger McC for instance if they thought it would sell papers). But we see it all the time in public life......one massive indiscretion and you loose favour regardless of all past glories....his contribution in the strike ended alot of peoples fawning over him. Everyone is sorry that that is the case but it's too late to change things now

Regardless of the points above Tom misses the elephant in the room. Sean Og regardless of the stories of his athletic prowess, over the past two seasons it has been clear as day that he is not the player that he needs to be to get Cork anywhere near the right standard.  Tom conveniently ignores that fact but instead chooses to focus on his performances in the 10 yard sprints......not the same thing Tom and obviously not the measure used by DW. I think he made the right choice and also tried to give Sean Og the opertunity to bow out gracefully........ but that wouldn't suit his image would it to bow out.

So in summary

He's a great fella, but he just not the player to take Cork forward next year. Good luck in retirement Sean Og....can we move on please