THERE IS A sense of symmetry to the elevation of Ben O’Connor to the top post in Cork hurling.
Last Thursday afternoon came confirmation that he was the chosen one to take the managerial reins, last night that appointment was rubberstamped on a three-year term.
Next Thursday, 11 September, marks the 20th anniversary of Cork’s last All-Ireland senior title.
The two decade wait has frustrated and haunted and consumed the county’s hurling community. The latest person tasked with ending that barren spell is the one who cracked home Cork’s only goal of the game in that 2005 September showdown.
The brains trust he has assembled to assist him was revealed yesterday afternoon. There is familiarity for him in his club-mate William Biggane, his former Cork team-mate Ronan Curran, and in Terence McCarthy, who he has thrived alongside with club and inter-county underage triumphs.
Niall O’Halloran’s coaching reputation has grown across his club work in Cork, steering four clubs (Bandon, Éire Óg, Fr O’Neills, and Lisgoold) to county titles across the last nine campaigns, while he also had spells with the Cork minor and MTU Cork Fitzgibbon Cup teams.
Ronan Curran after the 2010 Munster quarter-final between Cork and Tipperary. Cathal Noonan / INPHO
Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
The sideline relationships forged in the underage arena are something he has drawn on.
“We’ve a great bunch of fellas involved in the backroom team, you couldn’t ask for better craic,” he reflected in June 2023, after Cork had taken down Offaly in the All-Ireland U20 decider.
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“We wanted to make it fun for the lads as well that they enjoy coming to training and they have.”
O’Connor ascended to that Cork position off the back of the progressive steps he had made with club teams. He steered Charleville to summits in Cork and Munster in 2018, before they lost out to Galway’s Oranmore-Maree in the 2019 All-Ireland intermediate decider.
In November 2021 he had engineered Midleton’s first senior crown in eight years in Cork and could bask in the glow of that achievement. His keenness for embracing a challenge was captured after that game as he recalled how he had been drafted in by the East Cork club.
Ben O'Connor in 2021 during his time with Midleton. Ben Whitley / INPHO
Ben Whitley / INPHO / INPHO
“Luke O’Farrell (a former Cork senior team-mate) rang me the first day and I was actually at the races in Mallow.
“He asked me to get involved and I said, ‘I’ll ring you back in a week, Luke. Give me a few days.’
“So I was on to a few fellas. Obviously, you ring around and you see what’s the story. I heard that never before had they an outsider.
“So it put you thinking a small bit – ‘What’s the story here? If I go down, will everything go right?’
“So I went down, met the boys and from the first night I knew straight away there was no problem. With Mr Midleton Ger (Fitzgerald), he had everything organised. I just knew there was a group of players who would do anything they were asked to do.”
Climbing those rungs of the coaching ladder paved the way for O’Connor to get the main Cork managerial role. His glittering playing career reinforced his status as well. Last spring’s Laochra Gael episode placed the spotlight on the hurling heroics of him and his twin brother Jerry, a compelling reminder of their trail-blazing careers that carried them to a wide array of achievements with Cork and Newtownshandrum.
Ben O'Connor raises the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2004. INPHO
INPHO
His golden hurling CV made him the leading choice to succeed Pat Ryan and the finalising of his coaching team ticks a key box, yet the challenge ahead is a significant one.
Taking any major inter-county managerial post is demanding, that is increased all the more when the team in question has lost three of the last five All-Ireland finals. Whether Ryan remained in charge or a new manager was ushered in, it was clear in the aftermath of Tipperary’s second-half destruction on 20 July, that the project in rehabilitating Cork for the 2026 campaign would be sizeable. The scars from that defeat will not be easy to heal.
The immediate task in emerging from the Munster round-robin series into the All-Ireland conversation, is as pressing as ever. Cork must take on the last three Liam MacCarthy Cup winners in their meetings next April and May, along with a Waterford team they found awkward customers to defeat this summer. As Clare discovered this year, there is no immunity in the fiercely-contested race for those coveted top three provincial places.
Cork’s transition from the Pat Ryan era will be fascinating to observe. The bond the players had formed with their former manager was vividly illustrated at different stages over the last couple of seasons.
Former Cork boss Pat Ryan. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
O’Connor is a new face but not a strange one. He has had successful club connections with players like Darragh Fitzgibbon, Conor Lehane, and Tommy O’Connell. From his victorious U20 crew in 2023, Brion Saunderson, Eoin Downey, and Diarmuid Healy were part of the 26-man panel for July’s senior final, and the temptation will be to funnel more of that team through. There are also links to the experienced figures, the end of O’Connor’s Cork playing days overlapping with the early parts of others.
His determined, straight-talking, abrasive style has shone through in his management roles to date, coupled with the hurling IQ that served him well as a player. Those qualities will be necessary for what lies ahead.
O’Connor had long been regarded as someone who would fill the Cork hurling hotseat at some stage.
Having seized that opportunity, the hard work now begins.
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Ben O'Connor's golden Cork CV made him the leading choice, now the hard work begins
THERE IS A sense of symmetry to the elevation of Ben O’Connor to the top post in Cork hurling.
Last Thursday afternoon came confirmation that he was the chosen one to take the managerial reins, last night that appointment was rubberstamped on a three-year term.
Next Thursday, 11 September, marks the 20th anniversary of Cork’s last All-Ireland senior title.
The two decade wait has frustrated and haunted and consumed the county’s hurling community. The latest person tasked with ending that barren spell is the one who cracked home Cork’s only goal of the game in that 2005 September showdown.
The brains trust he has assembled to assist him was revealed yesterday afternoon. There is familiarity for him in his club-mate William Biggane, his former Cork team-mate Ronan Curran, and in Terence McCarthy, who he has thrived alongside with club and inter-county underage triumphs.
Niall O’Halloran’s coaching reputation has grown across his club work in Cork, steering four clubs (Bandon, Éire Óg, Fr O’Neills, and Lisgoold) to county titles across the last nine campaigns, while he also had spells with the Cork minor and MTU Cork Fitzgibbon Cup teams.
The sideline relationships forged in the underage arena are something he has drawn on.
“We’ve a great bunch of fellas involved in the backroom team, you couldn’t ask for better craic,” he reflected in June 2023, after Cork had taken down Offaly in the All-Ireland U20 decider.
“We wanted to make it fun for the lads as well that they enjoy coming to training and they have.”
O’Connor ascended to that Cork position off the back of the progressive steps he had made with club teams. He steered Charleville to summits in Cork and Munster in 2018, before they lost out to Galway’s Oranmore-Maree in the 2019 All-Ireland intermediate decider.
In November 2021 he had engineered Midleton’s first senior crown in eight years in Cork and could bask in the glow of that achievement. His keenness for embracing a challenge was captured after that game as he recalled how he had been drafted in by the East Cork club.
“Luke O’Farrell (a former Cork senior team-mate) rang me the first day and I was actually at the races in Mallow.
“He asked me to get involved and I said, ‘I’ll ring you back in a week, Luke. Give me a few days.’
“So I was on to a few fellas. Obviously, you ring around and you see what’s the story. I heard that never before had they an outsider.
“So it put you thinking a small bit – ‘What’s the story here? If I go down, will everything go right?’
“So I went down, met the boys and from the first night I knew straight away there was no problem. With Mr Midleton Ger (Fitzgerald), he had everything organised. I just knew there was a group of players who would do anything they were asked to do.”
Climbing those rungs of the coaching ladder paved the way for O’Connor to get the main Cork managerial role. His glittering playing career reinforced his status as well. Last spring’s Laochra Gael episode placed the spotlight on the hurling heroics of him and his twin brother Jerry, a compelling reminder of their trail-blazing careers that carried them to a wide array of achievements with Cork and Newtownshandrum.
His golden hurling CV made him the leading choice to succeed Pat Ryan and the finalising of his coaching team ticks a key box, yet the challenge ahead is a significant one.
Taking any major inter-county managerial post is demanding, that is increased all the more when the team in question has lost three of the last five All-Ireland finals. Whether Ryan remained in charge or a new manager was ushered in, it was clear in the aftermath of Tipperary’s second-half destruction on 20 July, that the project in rehabilitating Cork for the 2026 campaign would be sizeable. The scars from that defeat will not be easy to heal.
The immediate task in emerging from the Munster round-robin series into the All-Ireland conversation, is as pressing as ever. Cork must take on the last three Liam MacCarthy Cup winners in their meetings next April and May, along with a Waterford team they found awkward customers to defeat this summer. As Clare discovered this year, there is no immunity in the fiercely-contested race for those coveted top three provincial places.
Cork’s transition from the Pat Ryan era will be fascinating to observe. The bond the players had formed with their former manager was vividly illustrated at different stages over the last couple of seasons.
O’Connor is a new face but not a strange one. He has had successful club connections with players like Darragh Fitzgibbon, Conor Lehane, and Tommy O’Connell. From his victorious U20 crew in 2023, Brion Saunderson, Eoin Downey, and Diarmuid Healy were part of the 26-man panel for July’s senior final, and the temptation will be to funnel more of that team through. There are also links to the experienced figures, the end of O’Connor’s Cork playing days overlapping with the early parts of others.
His determined, straight-talking, abrasive style has shone through in his management roles to date, coupled with the hurling IQ that served him well as a player. Those qualities will be necessary for what lies ahead.
O’Connor had long been regarded as someone who would fill the Cork hurling hotseat at some stage.
Having seized that opportunity, the hard work now begins.
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Ben O'Connor Cork GAA Hurling Hurling Hotseat