Luke Connolly: Cork football is behind in underage coaching and developing players

But in an interview with the Echo, Connolly admitted that the focus with underage teams seems to be too much on winning games instead of learning how to play the game.

“There was a massive turnover of players when I played for the Cork seniors,” began Connolly.

“There was that core of the 2010 All-Ireland winning team stepping away and so on. You had players that were in their prime and then lads who were just on the panel so there was that gap where we didn’t have anything in the middle.

"You need those players in the middle bracket to gel the two. But like, we are how many years down the road and we are still having the same conversation. I do think there is an element of underage coaching and how we develop players and it's a bit behind.

"I know from being involved with some underage teams that we are coaching kids to win games and not to play the game.

“If you have an option of kicking balls over the bar or going to the gym, kick the balls. A lot of Cork players on the senior team aren't comfortable with the ball.

“We are producing fabulous athletes but when it comes to actual football players, we aren’t producing enough. You can’t have that if you want to progress to the next level."

Connolly also insisted he has ‘zero regrets’ when reflecting on his Cork career, although he doesn’t believe he was giving enough of an opportunity to spearhead the attack.

“I absolutely loved playing for Cork and have zero regrets,” he added.

“Did it go the way I wanted it to go? Absolutely not. I have a couple of highlights from a few games but part of me thinks I never really got a proper chance to be the focal point.

“There were years where I went into Cork on the back of being one of the main forwards in the county championship but couldn’t make the Cork starting 15 and sometimes not even the panel.

"I had the best year with my club in 2022 when we won the county and it came after I got dropped off the Cork panel earlier in the year, which I would have disagreed with at the time. It put a stain on something I loved doing.

"You never want to admit your mortality when it comes to sport. Unfortunately, it comes around faster than you would like. But I felt if I had stuck at it, physically I could have made a big impact but it’s a bit rich saying that probably after about eight years of not kicking on.

"Some of us needed to step away anyway. We had been around long enough and lost enough that it was time for new blood to come through. We had enough chances to bring Cork football forward and failed, let’s be perfectly honest.”