FORMER KILDARE MANAGER Cian O’Neill will work with the Cork footballers in 2020.
O’Neill will take on a coaching role and will work as part of Ronan McCarthy’s backroom team, along with selectors Gary O’Halloran and Sean Hayes.
O’Neill is employed as the Head of Department of Sports, Leisure and Childhood Studies at Cork Institute of Technology, and joins McCarthy’s coaching team having spent the last four seasons managing his native Kildare.
He previously worked with Tipperary’s hurlers as part of Liam Sheedy’s first backroom team, and contributed to All-Ireland success in 2010.
O’Neill follows the lead of Stephen Rochford in swapping a high-profile management role for a backroom role elsewhere, and will now work with Cork as they bid to earn promotion from Division Three at the first attempt.
Cork enjoyed a more fruitful Championship, pushing to within three points of Kerry in the Munster final before ultimately making it to the Super 8s. There were even greater positives at underage level, with wins in both the minor and U20 All-Irelands.
Along with O’Neill, Kevin Smith has been appointed as a Strength and Conditioning Coach to work under new High Performance Director Aidan O’Connell. Smith is a former head of S&C at Stade Français Rugby Club and is currently completing a PhD at Cork IT.
Former Ireland performance analyst and current coaching wizard of OZ Eoin Toolan joins Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey to predict Ireland’s World Cup, break down every pool, and call the overall winners.
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