Christy O'Connor on the quality Ben O'Connor can bring to Cork hurling role

Less than one minute into the ‘Laochra Gael’ programme on Ben and Jerry O’Connor screened on TG4 in March, the narrative around the character of the twin brothers was instantly outlined for the viewers.

“Ben is rattier,” says their father Bernie. “Jerry would be more plausible.” 

Ben didn’t deny that side of his personality. He never has. “I don’t feel like talking to everybody every day of the week,” said Ben on that programme. “And if I don’t feel like it, I won’t do it.” 

Despite how public-facing his day job is, and how his family are immersed in the hurley-making business, Ben O’Connor has always been comfortable enough in his own skin to deal with the public in whatever way he feels he needs, or wants to, in that moment.

Some may see that as a contrariness not to everybody’s liking, especially when O’Connor has always been such a high-profile figure in Cork hurling. In another form though, that side of O’Connor’s personality has always been a strength and a weapon, to have the conviction to do things his way – despite what everyone else may think.

That’s how O’Connor was brought up. His father had the courage to introduce a style of play that not only brought unprecedented success to Newtownshandrum, but which was so revolutionary that it shaped the modern game.

A club with no tradition, over 50 miles from the hotbed of Cork hurling, were looked upon as having some neck to even think they could take on the ruling caste.

They were deemed even bigger upstarts when their style of play had such a subversive quality because it was so unfaithful to the traditional values of Cork hurling. And yet Newtown not only overtook the system – they became the system.

The resentment towards their style grew even stronger when Newtown had such success. And yet, that only made the O’Connors even more determined to prove everybody wrong.

PUNKISH

Newtown were outliers when they first emerged 25 years ago and, while that punkish approach has always been in synch with Ben O’Connor’s personality, he has always carried that innate attitude with him throughout his hurling career as a player, coach and manager.

When O’Connor managed Cork to the 2023 All-Ireland U20 title, there was a swagger and strut in everything about that group, much of which stemmed from O’Connor and how he believes Cork should be sticking their chests out, and fulfilling what he feels is the destiny of Cork hurlers – winning All-Irelands.

“We’re Cork men and we want Cork to be winning everything at every age group,” said O’Connor in his post-match interview on TG4 after his side beat Clare in the 2023 Munster final. “There is a massive step up from U20 to senior, but we’re hoping to get Cork hurling back to where it should be. And that’s winning senior All-Irelands.” 

 O’Connor has always operated with the authority and attitude of his time, where the elite standard was always the ultimate measurement of a Cork hurler.

O’Connor was never afraid to do things his way, or to call something as how he saw it, in victory or defeat. After Cork beat Offaly in that 2023 All-Ireland U20 final, Leo O’Connor, the Offaly manager, expressed his frustration with some of Cork’s tackling. When the Offaly manager’s comments were put to Ben O’Connor, he just shrugged his shoulders.

“If they got the chance, they’d probably do the same thing,” he said. "You do what you have to do to win.” 

Cork certainly played with that kind of an attitude that afternoon. Cork had a physical edge against a young Offaly side, and were hell-bent on using that advantage. 

They pushed that physicality to the limit at stages of that match, especially when there was no black card in use. Offaly’s most explosive and dangerous forward Adam Screeney was repeatedly fouled by a raft of Cork players when in threatening positions.

That was a highly-talented Cork side but O’Connor’s team still played with a clear understanding of the trade-off between cynicism and doing what was required to win.

Cork teams have long struggled to fully adopt that approach to the required level at senior, to do whatever is necessary within the rules to win. That hasn’t been for the want of trying from successive managers and coaches, especially Pat Ryan, but O’Connor will hunt as hard as he can to instill that edge in his players because it is such an intrinsic part of his character and personality.

Going down that road will probably mean doing so with different players but O’Connor has the luxury of having worked with a significant chunk of the senior panel at U20 level, a lot of whom are desperately trying to break into the senior team.

MACHINE

Going from managing an U20 team to a senior side is a huge step up, especially when Cork hurling is such a machine, and particularly now when the pressure to win an All-Ireland is at such an intolerably demanding state.

Yet O’Connor faced those kinds of difficult challenges throughout his time as a player when coming from such a small club that grew into a giant that not everybody always embraced, especially with Newtown’s style and success.

If anything, that pressure to break the mould – to win three All-Irelands and to captain Cork to one of those All-Irelands – made O’Connor even more committed to prove that doing so was possible from such an outpost.

And having the privilege of managing Cork now will give O’Connor even more motivation to bring that serrated edge to the job to try and keep breaking the mould.