O’Connor is relishing his busy schedule
By Shane Brophy
Gearoid O’Connor is a busy man in terms of his hurling at the moment, between both Tipperary and UL.
Sunday’s man of the match performance against Galway was his third big in seven days between county and college, and while some might bemoan the workload, the Moyne-Templetuohy clubman is enjoying it.
“I think it’s great,” he admitted, adding jokingly, “I don’t have to do any training on Tuesday night so I’m missing out on all the running.”
He added: “Like any player, you just want to be playing matches and to be fair to the lads they are very accommodating, both sets of management are very good with linking over. I’m just happy to be playing these matches and the more, the better.”
This Wednesday, he lines out with UL in the Fitzgibbon Cup semi-final against University of Galway, and should they win, the final is next Saturday. In the middle of all that has been a strong start to the league with Tipp.
“It’s great to get a good start to the league,” he added.
“We planned on building from the very beginning of the league and trying to get a good run through the year. Thankfully, we got the win today and last Saturday and we just march on.”
After his twelve point haul against Dublin, O’Connor improved on that with a 1-13 haul against Galway including four points from play, culminating with a late penalty which many thought he might have pointed to have given Tipp a three point lead.
“I didn’t know what to do so I said I’d go for goal but thankfully it went in,” he admitted.
Although he may have over-ruled the advice from the sideline to take the point, manager Liam Cahill admitting O’Connor and the remaining Fitzgibbon Cup players are not being overworked.
“Yeah, I think he did his own thing anyway,” Cahill laughed.
“It was a two point game at that stage so the sensible thing to do was go for a point. But I think he wanted to do his own thing.
“He’s in a great vein of form. The Fitzgibbon takes a little bit of management – if you have a good report with the Fitzgibbon managers and making sure that your players are not overtaxed. They can enjoy their college hurling, which they want to do along with their intercounty hurling. We won’t see him again now maybe until the Fitzgibbon is over and we’re happy with that.”