Aisake: why I walked away from Cork hurling

May 20, 2017

Aisake Óg Ó hAilpín in action for Cork in 2010.
©INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan.

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín's shock axing from the Cork hurling squad in 2010 prompted his younger brother Aisake to quit inter-county hurling.

After his AFL dream with the Carlton Blues ended in 2008, Aisake returned home and soon joined Seán Óg on the county hurling panel. However, being informed by a selector at half-time in the 2010 All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Kilkenny, with Cork trailing by 13 points, that he was being taken off didn't go down well.

"I went in at half-time and it wasn't even the coach (Denis Walsh) who told me I was coming off. It was one of the selectors. That tells me I don't really know who was calling the shots that day. It was as if the coach was half-afraid to tell me I was being taken off," Aisake said in an interview with the Irish Independent ahead of tomorrow's Munster SHC quarter-final between Cork and Tipperary.

"I'll never forget the bus back and the younger lads laughing and joking. And I'm sitting there, thinking, 'F***ing hell, we just got embarrassed out there...' It nearly drove me crazy looking at them. I didn't say anything but in my head was, 'f**k this, I'm never going to let this happen again. Getting taken off. Losing by that much. No, never again."

The final straw for Aisake came later that year when Seán Óg was dropped. On hearing the news, he made up his mind to go back to Australia.

"And as soon as I heard Seán Óg had been told he was out of Cork's plans, that was it. I couldn't believe it. It just did not make sense to me. I felt he was very hard done by. And I just decided, 'You know what? I'm not going to give my life to these people when they're basically just after shafting my brother!"


Most Read Stories