It could have been a great year for Ciaran O'Sullivan. Instead he will have to settle for it being very good. Within a week of an historic county championship win with Beara, tomorrow brings into focus the sense of regret as Cork take on Clare in Section D of the National Football League.

Last June 22nd, Clare's Martin Daly pinched an injury-time goal which sent Cork spinning out of the championship long before their widely-accepted credentials as All-Ireland contenders had been examined very closely.

"I was devastated," says O'Sullivan, "but maybe lucky where I was working (Tedcastle's in Cork) because my boss is Justin McCarthy (Cork All-Ireland hurler and manager) and Denis Walsh (former Cork dual player) work there.

"It was a consolation being able to talk about it. We had done 180 training sessions and worked so hard. Then, bang, you're out. I was lucky the division was still involved in the championship. It helped keep me sane.

"We played 20 minutes outstanding football, a quick, short-passing game, but then we began kicking from long distance for no reason. There was a bit of a wind and we probably began to kick with it. I'd give Clare respect. They're a fine team, John O'Keeffe had them well prepared and they came close to beating us the year before.

"As a team we haven't sat down to talk about it yet. The first League match was against Tipp and there were a lot of new faces so there was no chance (for the championship team) to sit down and talk about it. But I'm sure we'll get around to it."

O'Sullivan was particularly fortunate with his county championship involvement as Beara won the West Cork division's first title since 1967. "When we lost to UCC in last year's semi-final, we knew we were good enough. This year we could have been knocked out in the first round fairly easily, but the more games we played the better we got. Beara won the under-21 last year and a lot of the panel are playing in this year's under-21 on Sunday. The average age of the panel is 24."

Having arrived on the national stage as a wing back with quite an impact in 1993 as Cork's relatively new team closed in on the All-Ireland, O'Sullivan was to find that defeat by Derry, far from being the hard apprenticeship, was to be the high point of at least the following five years.

His own game has been burdened with a virtuoso versatility which has seen him move from his original wing back posting through centrefield into the half forwards and occasionally the full forward line - all the time rolling out the appropriate attribute: lively in defence, creative at centrefield and a scoring forward.

"I said at the start of the year that I would be delighted to play centre forward, number 10, number nine, number seven. There was a lot of switching and I would like being in the one position for a good few games. But I wouldn't criticise Larry (Tompkins, the manager), who was trying to get the best out of players for the team."

Training since the League began hasn't been as savage as last season, according to O'Sullivan. "I'm not too sure what Larry has in mind. Last year we did an enormous amount of training so maybe we'll be taking it easier this year - although he could suddenly start it again next week, I don't know because I haven't been involved with the county championship still going on."

One of the criticisms of Cork's performances last year was that too much of a premium was placed on physical, athletic players at the expense of subtler football in the forwards. O'Sullivan is ambivalent.

"Larry's style is very, very tough training sessions. Obviously there's a lot of emphasis on fitness. On the other hand, it's all about scoring. You're not going to win no matter how big and strong you are, if you don't put the ball over the bar. But those players were playing in the forwards for their clubs and had a record of scoring."

This time around Cork, although currently running at 100 per cent, may be less frantic about the NFL which they lost after a poor final performance against Kerry last May, but O'Sullivan is reluctant to jump to conclusions.

"Some people say you can't win both, but Kerry showed you can do it. We won league and championship in 1989, Kerry did it this year. There's no reason why it can't be done.