Gaelic Games

Patrick Horgan says new Cork sponsor Sports Direct has been ‘nothing but good’

Incoming captain dismissed controversy around company and owner Mike Ashley

Cork GAA hurling captain, Patrick Horgan, pictured following the announcement of Sports Direct’s new five-year sponsorship deal with Cork GAA. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Seán Moran's face
Seán Moran
Thu Feb 4 2021 - 12:38

Incoming Cork hurling captain Patrick Horgan has dismissed any controversy surrounding the county’s new sponsors, Sports Direct, and owner Mike Ashley. Speaking at the launch of the sponsorship, he said that the company had proved beneficial in its previous local partnerships.

“I’d say he probably has bigger fish to fry now than a hurling team in Cork. It’s good, I think, that Sports Direct are trying to get into the GAA world and obviously they’ve done through a couple of clubs up to now but I think it’s a big step for them and Cork teaming up at county level. To be honest, I’m just looking forward and I can imagine everyone in Cork is feeling the same.”

Among those local sponsorships have been Horgan’s own club, Glen Rovers.

“All I ever hear back is good things, that they’re mad interested in putting on different days in the club and festivals and stuff obviously with a lot of the under-age. Events like that. That’s what I’m hearing at a higher level in the club that they’ve been nothing but good.”

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He also reflected on a disappointing 2020 when Cork lost to Waterford in Munster and Tipperary in the All-Ireland qualifiers.

“Every GAA player you talk to in the country, every hurler is going to be disappointed unless you’re Limerick. We all feel we could have done something better in 2020. It kind of got away from us in a way that our county championship went on very long last year and we didn’t exactly have forever to get together.

“Waterford caught us on a day when I think we had double-digit wides in the first quarter and kind of shot ourselves out of it, really. Waterford were very good on the day as well but we were a bit better against Dublin and then against Tipp we were a bit unlucky conditions-wise and we came up against the worst of the conditions on the night.

“I thought we gave ourselves every chance against a ridiculously strong wind in the first half. The wind doesn’t win anything, I know, but yeah Tipp fully deserved their win over us. Look, it was just disappointing and that’s obviously something we will try and correct and are trying to correct at the moment.”