Cork withdrawals may force tour rethink

Organisers of the All Star hurling tour yesterday confirmed no one from All-Ireland winners Cork would be travelling to Singapore next week. Despite undermining the purpose of the tour, All Star sponsors Vodafone insist this year's withdrawals don't present an immediate threat to future tours, although there is likely to be a rethink on the timing and possibly future locations.

Just a week before next Wednesday's departure the touring party is still being finalised. Ten Cork players were due to travel - with six from the 2005 All Star team and another four from the 2004 selection - and finding suitable replacements hasn't been an easy task.

So far eight replacements have been confirmed, with Waterford's Eoin Kelly, Tipperary's Philip Maher, Kilkenny's Eoin Larkin and Clare's Niall Gilligan, Brian Lohan, Tony Carmody and Seánie McMahon called up for the tour, which runs from January 18th to 24th.

Vodafone, however, are playing down the withdrawal as nothing more than an unfortunate combination of circumstances: "We certainly don't see this as a snub," said a spokesman. "We totally understand the situation facing the Cork players, in that they don't return from their own team holiday until this weekend. It is still likely there'll be some rethink about the timing of the tour. More and more teams are going on holiday at this time of the year, but the problem is deciding where else it can fit into the GAA calendar."

A pre-Christmas tour has been mooted, but that would mean bringing the whole All Star award process forward several weeks, and then there is the possible clash of interest with club fixtures. The tour alternates between hurling and football each year, and so far it's the hurling tours that have been most hit with withdrawals, with the smaller pool of players making replacements harder to come by.

The introduction of the tour in recent years was seen as an additional reward for increasing player commitments over the year, and has so far taken in locations such as Buenos Aires, San Diego and Hong Kong. Keeping the tour closer to home could reduce the number of withdrawals but for now the main conflict appears to be with the counties' own team holidays.

Cork are in South Africa and don't return until this Saturday. For the O'Connor twins, Ben and Jerry, and defender Pat Mulcahy, the All-Ireland semi-final with their club Newtownshandrum is now looming, while fellow 2005 All Stars Diarmuid O'Sullivan, John Gardiner and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín also declined to travel - as did the 2004 winners Wayne Sherlock, Ronan Curran, Niall McCarthy and Brian Corcoran.

Ironically, the two managers selected for the tour were Cork's John Allen and his predecessor Donal O'Grady and they have agreed to travel. Beaten All-Ireland finalists Galway had four representatives, and with the exception of Damien Hayes (who is exam-tied), Ollie Canning, Derek Hardiman, Ger Farragher are still travelling.

There was a similar problem two years ago when several members of Kilkenny's All-Ireland winning hurling team pulled out of the tour at late notice, contrasting with last year when almost the entire football selection agreed to travel.

GAA president Seán Kelly leads the touring party. The highlight of the tour is the exhibition game between the current selection and the previous year's selection at Singapore Polo Grounds on January 21st.

Also part of the itinerary is a reception at the Irish Embassy, with excursions also taking in the Singapore Guineas and the Jack Nicklaus Bintan Lagoon golf course, which is situated in neighbouring Indonesia.