Cork Hurling: Who will Ben O'Connor turn to as he freshens up panel?

No results are ever guaranteed at the top level of sport. 

All you can do is prepare to the best of your ability, with the starting point in this regard being ensuring the right manager is in charge.

Whatever happens in the future, we can confidently say that the Cork hurlers have the right man in charge from 2026 onwards, with Ben O’Connor officially taking over at the helm from the departing Pat Ryan.

Given his record with the Cork U20 hurlers and Midleton, he was always the most obvious candidate, as long as he wanted the job.

O’Connor and his management team produced a very steely side when winning the All-Ireland against Offaly in Thurles, after going the entire campaign undefeated, coming out the right side of a few tight scraps in Munster.

The point is that Cork fans need to be patient with the new managerial ticket. Of course, the hunger to end the now 21-year famine is reaching desperation levels, but the new management team need to be trusted, and given the necessary time required, even in the event of a hiccup or two.

The expectation is that O’Connor will make tweaks to the side that came up short in 2024 and 2025. 

No massive resets or clearouts are required, but himself, Ronan Curran, Terence McCarthy, William Biggane and Niall O’Halloran will have their own ideas of how the Cork team should line-up, just like every reader does. The only difference is that their opinions count!

In terms of new blood, every pundit will mention the likes of Brion Saunderson, Darragh O’Sullivan, Micheál Mullins, Ben Cunningham, William Buckley and Jack Leahy as the obvious standout names who can come into the fray for 2026. There is a whole pile of All-Ireland U20 winners from 2020, 2021 and 2023 who might also fancy their chances of coming in and freshening things up too.

Given O’Connor’s All-Ireland win at U20 level in 2023 it certainly would be no surprise if he was to look at Ballinora’s Shane Kingston in the full-back line, while the likes of Paudie O’Sullivan, Cillian Tobin, Timmy Wilk, Kevin Lyons and Barry Walsh have all played in key positions under O’Connor in his time in charge of the U20s too.

PROMINENT

You would also imagine that Tommy O’Connell might be considered for a more prominent role given that O’Connor made him the lynchpin of the 2021 Midleton side that won the county championship from centre back, although midfield still looks to be his best position for Cork.

It might not necessarily be O’Connor’s successful Cork U20 side that players come from either.

Players like Na Piarsaigh’s Daire Connery, Watergrasshill’s Sean Desmond and Carrigtwohill’s Sean Walsh have some good club form. 

Connery got a brief look in when he was only 20 back in 2020, but his attributes were probably considered too similar to Mark Coleman at the time, and the onus was on finding more physical players. 

He is now impressing as a ball-playing, scoring centre-forward at club level, so might be worth another look. That's if injuries don't curtail him as he went off against Carrigtwohill recently.

Desmond and Walsh impress every time they play for their clubs as well with their attacking abilities. 

RELIABLE

Hurling is not an issue for any of the three just mentioned. 

They probably just have to prove to O’Connor that they can bring something different to the table - some sort of X-Factor - as ultimately that is the requirement of anyone breaking onto the Cork team going forward.

Sean Walsh did play for the U20s in 2022, but that was the fallow year between Cork winning three All-Irelands at that grade in four years, so no one was getting picked out based on their displays in that campaign.

It is, of course, easy to suggest who might get looked at to prevent staleness creeping in within the panel. It is a much tougher task to identify who the new blood would actually be replacing.

That is Ben O’Connor’s job now. It certainly will not be easy, but it will certainly be interesting.