Ben O'Connor era is here: Expect big calls on which Cork hurlers make the panel
Ben Cunningham and Micheál Mullins will be hoping to get a chance to shine under Ben O'Connor. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
With the new management team confirmed, there is huge interest in how they shape the panel for 2026.
Ben O'Connor is at the helm with Ronan Curran, Niall O'Halloran, Terence McCarthy and Willie Biggane as selectors. And they've some big calls to make in the coming months.
As happens every off-season, supporters are speculating about which young guns are ready for the step-up. That's particularly the case here as only Eoin Downey and Diarmuid Healy have progressed so far from the U20 All-Ireland winning crop that O'Connor managed in 2023.
Micheál Mullins, William Buckley, Darragh O'Sullivan, Ben Cunningham and Jack Leahy, who surprisingly wasn't included in this season's senior panel, are among the gifted young hurlers with the potential to push on.
There are also significant miles on the clock of the veterans in their 30s: Patrick Horgan, Seamus Harnedy, Damien Cahalane and Conor Lehane. That doesn't mean they'll be jettisoned purely on the basis of age but it's a factor that must be considered at the start of a new three-year term.
Pat Ryan and his management introduced a number of new faces across their three seasons, most notably Eoin Downey, Brian Hayes and Diarmuid Healy, as well as recalling Declan Dalton and overseeing Shane Barrett's development into an All-Star forward.
Yet they guided the Rebels to back-to-back All-Ireland finals with the core who were beaten by Galway in the 2022 quarter-final in Kieran Kingston's last game in charge.
Patrick Horgan was a second-half sub that afternoon in Thurles but regained his place under Ryan, while Harnedy was only omitted against Tipp last July because of injury. Damien Cahalane, Luke Meade, Robbie O'Flynn, Shane Kingston and Lehane were starters in 2022 and while that status changed, all bar Meade were central to the Munster final penalty shootout victory over Limerick.
Others on the fringes, such as Robbie Cotter, Eoin Roche, Cathal McCarthy, Darragh Flynn, Jack Cahalane and Daniel Hogan, are at a pivotal juncture in their Cork careers. Jack O'Connor made fleeting championship appearances in recent seasons, Ethan Twomey went from starter in the spring to outside the 26 togged out for the All-Ireland final and Pádraig Power is recovering from a season-ending knee injury.
Some will move on, others will thrive in the Ben O'Connor era.
When Conor Counihan's tenure ended in 2013, the Cork footballers lost too much experience in the dressing room and on the training ground in the aftermath.
New blood is needed, clearly, but it must be remembered that Cork have a very strong base.
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