College link-up may be solution to Cork's training ground problems April 30, 2018





Cork fans fly their flag high.

©INPHO/Tommy Dickson. Cork fans fly their flag high.©INPHO/Tommy Dickson.

The chairman of the new Cork GAA fundraising group, Cairde Chorcai, has urged the county board to explore the possibility of a link-up with UCC or CIT to provide better training facilities for its county teams.

Instead of spending millions of euro on developing a Centre of Excellence, Ted Owens believes Cork GAA could set up a training base in either of the two colleges.

"We'd like to get involved in supporting coaching structures at underage level in the county and while Páirc Uí Chaoimh is progress, with great facilities down there, the reality is that training facilities are a huge problem for county teams," he said in an interview with the Irish Examiner.

"Obviously other counties have purpose-built centres of excellence, and maybe that's the solution, but in Cork we'd be willing to explore possibilities with the likes of Cork IT and UCC, as well as maybe some of the big GAA clubs like Mallow, if you supplemented some of the facilities there.

"Munster Rugby has established itself in UL, and that being the case, is there any reason we can't establish Cork in UCC or CIT? Leinster Rugby are in UCD. That's our thinking but we'd look to work closely with the board on that."

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