Billy Morgan played with Cork as far back as the 60s.
He managed them in the 80s. He took them in the 90s. And he was with them through 2003 to 2007 again.
For 40 years, this man had his finger on the pulse of the Rebels. He knew every single peccadillo of Cork. He knew every single problem. The sad thing about all that though, is that those problems are still the same today – over half a century after Morgan first played with his county’s senior side.
Speaking on The GAA Hour, the goalkeeping legend told the story of how they went about their winter training and how it still seems to be exactly the same today.
“I remember going cap in hand to different clubs to try and get a pitch to train during the winter,” Morgan explained.
“Obviously clubs didn’t want to give out their pitches during the winter, I don’t blame them, because they’re resting them. So we were going from pillar to post looking for places to train.
“I would have imagined that, by now, Cork would’ve had a permanent home as other counties do but, to my knowledge, the same story still applies. They’re still hopping around from place to place looking for a place to train.”
They might not have a pitch to train in over the winter but what they will have soon is a brand new stadium.
It’s not actually going to help solve the problem really though and Colm Parkinson blasted the plans for Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“It’s an ego trip, is Páirc Uí Chaoimh and I’ll tell you why. There’s only going to be that main pitch and an all-weather… how many teams at inter-county level do Cork have? There’s still going to be that same problem with pitches,” Wooly said.
“If you’re building a big state-of-the-art facility, you want seven or eight pitches. You want enough to have a centre of excellence. That’s forward planning.”
Listen to the full discussion from 22:05 and again at 36:30.
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