Cork footballers training in a warehouse

January 14, 2017

Cork manager Peadar Healy and players stand together.
©INPHO/Tom Beary.

Paddy Kelly has aimed a parting shot at the Cork county board over its lack of basic facilities for its inter-county teams.

In the second part of an interview with the Irish Examiner today, the recently-retired forward questions why the board is spending so much money on redeveloping Páirc Uí Chaoimh when the county's footballers have to train in a makeshift gym in a Fermoy warehouse, which they set up themselves.

"You think of the state-of-the-art facilities other counties have developed," the 2010 All-Ireland winning said.

"I know Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be ready this summer and it will be fantastic, but still, it's a main pitch and then an all-weather pitch. Derek Kavanagh wrote an excellent article last year in the Irish Examiner where you should really have eight to 10 pitches together, with the county minors and development squads training alongside the senior team, creating a sense that 'This is Cork.'

"Instead you now have a situation where the Cork senior footballers are tucked away in a warehouse in Fermoy."

Kelly also believes Cork needs to up its fundraising efforts if it's to compete with the Dublins and Kerrys of this world.

"You look at Dublin and all the sponsorship partners they're able to attract. You look at Kerry and the fundraising efforts they've done, going abroad, getting people involved. You look at Club Tyrone. The Tipperary Supporters Club. All these external bodies who are supplementing the county effort. In Cork we don't have that," he lamented.


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