BEN O’CONNOR SAYS his eyes have been opened to the workload involved in senior inter-county hurling since taking over as Cork manager.

Last week, Patrick Horgan took issue with his former teammate’s remark that “down through the years, Cork might have been accused of (having) nice hurlers but not working hard”.

O’Connor has clarified that he was simply referring to the external view, which is no reflection of what goes on inside the camp.

“If I was standing outside looking in, not being involved, you could say, ‘They should be doing this, they should be doing that’. But since I got involved in the group, I can see what fellas are putting into it,” O’Connor said.

“Every one of them works so hard. There’s no accusation to anyone. Every fella that we’ve brought into the group this year, if I said to them, ‘Keep running at that wall and you’ll get out through it’, they’ll do it for you. That’s what I’m saying.”

O’Connor feels that people have to be part of the group to fully understand the extent of the commitment.

“I played here in the Páirc however many years ago,” he recalls. “There was a fella on the team playing with me and his father was up sitting two rows behind my mother and he was criticising myself and Jerry. I might have been going poor – I often went poor – but he was above criticising.

“Do you have to be in the circle? You do, because a lot of people don’t see it. We (the current Cork panel) started on 17 November and trained three and four nights a week in the wind, wet, and cold.

“Pick out some fella who’s abusing above in the stand at the weekend – if things aren’t going great, there’s always a fella giving out. If you ask him to come into training every night and just sit and watch it, not to mind go in and do the training… People don’t get what these fellas put themselves through.

“I thought I did until I came in and saw what they’re doing. I was saying to myself, ‘Yeah, they’re training three nights a week, they might do a bit of a gym session’ – but they’re six nights a week. They’re full-time. A lot of people don’t realise that.

“People expect that fellas have to be outstanding every day. That just doesn’t happen. They’re not machines.

“We were on about Arsenal. There are fellas over there getting paid 350,000 a week and they can’t perform every week. And they’re giving out if they have to play two games in a week. That’s what I’m getting at.

“You have to be in the circle to see what fellas are putting into it. And they’re doing it for what? A love of Cork hurling.”

John Kiely has previously suggested that players can go on for longer with modern methods of preparation, but O’Connor feels the demands take a toll on amateur players.

“A lot of these fellas are actually training for the last 10 years with no break at all. They just keep coming back and keep coming back. It’s for the big days, and they don’t happen that often.

“It’s a short career. I suppose careers were a bit longer before, but with what fellas are putting into it now, careers are getting shorter.

“Fellas aren’t able to keep doing it because there’s so much of a draw on their time. When I was playing, it was three nights a week, or four maybe an odd time.

“These fellas are doing six nights a week now. They’re professional in everything bar getting paid.”

One of those big days arrives this Sunday as Cork bid to defend their Munster title at home to Limerick.

O’Connor has repeatedly labelled the Treaty as hurling’s standard-bearers. When asked what impresses him most about the neighbours, the Newtownshandrum man points to their mentality.

“They’ve kept it going so long. They are there for the last 10 or 12 years. It’s a lot of the same players that they’ve had and they’re able to keep it going.

“They play to a system that suits them. They don’t change it for anyone. They just do what they do and they stick to that. They believe in that and it has obviously been working for them.

“Any team that gets over them seems to go on to win the All-Ireland, bar us. Good players and they’re still the team to beat.”

O’Connor – a lifelong Arsenal fan – takes some hope from the Gunners’ drought-quenching title triumph. He watched the club’s All Or Nothing documentary, but didn’t find much to transfer to his management.

“They’re multi-millionaires, we’re not – there aren’t many parallels to draw there,” he chuckles.

“You just see how the other side live, don’t you? How pampered fellas are and what they’re giving out about… They weren’t above in Na Piarsaigh running around in the wind and the cold on 17 November!”