O'Flynn in race against time for tie against Cork SHC
Robbie O’Flynn is in a race against time to prove his fitness for Erin’s Own ahead of their Cork SHC tie with Ballymartle on Saturday. The Cork attacker aggravated his hamstring while playing with his club.
“We played Ballyhea last Sunday week, he started for us,” said selector David McNamara. “He was going quite well, he hit the ball over the bar and he tweaked the lower part of his hamstring. He is getting physio with Declan O’Sullivan. We will see where we are with him, but at the moment he is rated doubtful.
It is a huge blow for Robbie because he loves playing with Erin’s Own. It is a big disappointment for him and obviously for us.
He is a massive player and a super talent. We will have to wait and see. He has a long season ahead of him so we have to make a sensible decision on that.”
Rebel hurling fans are keenly looking forward to the senior hurling championship. Already Imokilly’s attempt for three-in-a-row is going to plan, having easily made it through the Division/Colleges section.
On Friday week the round one games swing into action. However, this Saturday evening in Páirc Uí Rinn, Erin’s Own and Ballymartle clash in a preliminary round. The winners meet last season’s Premier intermediate champions Charleville a week later in round one.
Even though they have an anxious wait on O’Flynn, McNamara says they are ready to go.
“We are as ready as we can be. We went back in early January and brought John Griffin (former Kerry hurler) in as coach this year, he is a new voice. His enthusiasm is quite infectious and he has fitted in very well. He would have played many years with Kerry and worked under very good coaches.
“We did a lot of soul searching over the winter after our elimination last year to UCC (round 3). What was frustrating about that was we played extremely well against Bride Rovers in the first round. But we found it extremely hard to get back to the same level after the break. We could have snatched it but I’m not sure we would have deserved it.
“We were a new management team and maybe we focused too much on the league results. This year we’d hope we are a bit wiser. We have taken a different view and we are trying to use as many players as possible in the league. We have played four games. We beat Sarsfields and Ballyhea, drew with Douglas and we went down to Na Piarsaigh. Overall, we are in reasonable shape. We will go at it two nights again this week and see where it will take us.”
