Considine rules himself out of taking on the Cork hurling job long-term

GAELIC GAMES:JOHN CONSIDINE, the interim Cork hurling coach, yesterday confirmed he has no interest in staying on after his tenure ends at the end of the month.

Considine was adamant yesterday he sees his appointment as purely assisting the Cork senior hurlers in their next two National League games, against Clare in Ennis on Sunday, and Limerick in Cork on March 29th.

“You can put it up in big bold letters that I don’t want the job permanently,” said Considine, adding that his long-term focus was on leading the Cork under-21 hurlers to success this year after they made an early exit from the championship to Clare in 2008.

“My target at the start of the year was to try to get the best out of the Cork under-21s and that remains my objective. The under-21s play Tipperary three days after the seniors play them in the championship, and it just wouldn’t be feasible to try to combine both roles,” he said.

Considine was speaking before taking charge of his first training session at Páirc Uí Rinn last night, and he stressed the session would be geared towards assessing who was available and their fitness levels.

He confirmed that the 2008 panel and members of the 2009 panel who played under Gerald McCarthy would be in attendance, along with a handful of players who had been approached by McCarthy but had opted out because of the dispute.

He said a number of the 2008 panel were carrying niggling injuries, among them Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Tom Kenny and Jerry O’Connor, while he also wanted to talk to Diarmuid O’Sullivan about his availability given he is playing rugby with Highfield.

Considine said he and his fellow under-21 selectors, Jim Cashman, Paddy Daly, Tony O’Sullivan and Denis Ring, expect to name a 24-strong panel on Thursday night for the Clare game.

Considine said he had worked with 2008 panel members such as John Gardiner and the two Kieran Murphys when he was Cork minor coach in 2000 and 2001, and knew many of the 2009 panel from his work as the under-21 coach.

Considine’s decision to rule himself out as a long-term replacement for McCarthy comes after former Cork coach Donal O’Grady also opted out of contention.

Meanwhile, the Cork County Board last night backed a proposal from the board’s executive that three independent people would be appointed by Central Council to consider and recommend a senior hurling manager to the county board for a two-year term.

The proposal, which was originally proposed as part of the initiative by the Central Council to resolve the recent hurling dispute, received the backing of 72 of the 113 delegates present at last night’s board meeting when a vote was taken by secret ballot.

The three nominees proposed by Central Council would all be Cork GAA people and, in the interests of impartiality, no member of the 2008/09 county board or current player would be nominated. The process will be overseen by GAA director general Paraic Duffy.

In all, 11 ways of choosing the next Cork manager went before delegates for decision. A proposal from Ballinhassig that three former players not involved in the past 10 years be chosen to select the coach was the next best supported, with nine votes.

Afterwards, Cork press officer Ger Lane said he expected Central Council would be contacted tomorrow and the process would be initiated with a view to having a new management team in place for the Cork-Kilkenny National League game on April 5th.