Erin's Own appoint Brendan O'Riordan as new hurling manager

Erin’s Own have appointed Brendan O’Riordan as the new manager of their senior hurling team.

In 2025, the Caherlag club endured relegation from the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC, losing to Newtownshandrum after a replay. It means that they will operate outside the top tier of Cork hurling for the first time since 1988.

With Shay Bowen having opted to step down in the wake of that, Erin’s Own have moved quickly to get a management team in place for next year.

O’Riordan played GAA for his native Bishopstown - and was also an accomplished soccer player, winning the Munster Senior League Premier Division title with College Corinthians - but he has resided in Glouthaune for the past two decades and has been involved with numerous Erin’s Own under-age teams.

“I remember the first football training session I brought my kids up to,” O’Riordan says, “there was a guy there, Emmett Guest, originally from Na Piarsaigh, and I'd say he was doing the whole football from U10 down.

“He probably had up to a hundred kids and he was doing it on his own. I just kind of fell in with him. He kept it going for so long, along with Seán Twohig and Billy Hegarty.

“We have a super set-up at the moment, the likes of Pat Fitzgerald and Paul Fenton, along with Eoin Doyle, the juvenile secretary, who’s from Tipperary.

“They have fantastic structures in place and great ideas and it's very inclusive.

“I was probably involved with minor teams for maybe seven or eight years and then with the U21s for the last three or four years, I'd say, so I know a lot of the lads on the senior team. I would have coached an awful lot of them when they were younger.”

After relegation, it can be difficult for a club to reset but O’Riordan was keen to provide assistance ahead of what will be a challenge, given the strength of quality in the senior A grade.

“The fact that I knew the players and I felt a sense of responsibility in terms of trying to help them and to nurture them and try and get them performing back to the level that they're capable of,” he says.

“Obviously, last year would have been a setback to them and it would have been a tough year for them, a demanding year for them, because there are a lot of young lads here.

“Next year, you have Killeagh, you have Blarney, you have Carrigtwohill, you have Castlelyons, you know, all teams of good players and strong hurling culture in all those clubs and inter-county players. So it's going to be equally tough.”

However, O’Riordan has confidence in the strong backroom team he has assembled.

“Martin Buckley, who would have been the senior manager two years ago, he’s involved. He’s a good guy and he has a very good personality, he’s good with people.

“Then there’s John O’Brien, who’s originally from Ballygunner in Waterford, he would have done a lot of under-age work as well, kind of similar to me.

“Then, doing the coaching, there's a guy called Mark Ferncombe from Abbeyside, just outside Dungarvan.

“He’s a young guy, a good emerging coach and he was a good player himself. He's keen and I think he'll be a good fit for the players that we have.

“James McGlade, who’s from Armagh originally, he lives in the parish and he was with the Cork U20s last year and was with the Down minors as well before. He's the strength and conditioning coach.

“There’s a good group there.”