Patrick Horgan surprised but honoured to receive U20s call

Patrick Horgan admits that he was surprised to be asked to become a Cork U20 hurling selector but he is keen to contribute in whatever way he can.

The 37-year-old announced his retirement from senior inter-county hurling in September, the end of a Cork career stretching back to 2008, but he will make a quick pivot to the coaching side after U20 manager Noel Furlong added him to his set-up for 2026.

As well as imparting advice to the younger players involved, the Glen Rovers man envisages picking up expertise of his own, too, especially as he wasn’t expecting the call.

“Yeah, obviously it wouldn't have been something I thought I would have ever got,” he said, “but I suppose that's down to me doubting myself as well

“ I would never think something like that would come to me, I never thought I would get the chance to do it but, I suppose, as soon as I did get the chance, it's very easy to think about do you want to be a part of a high-performance unit again in a different way.

“The season starts soon enough and it finishes is it middle of May, if everything goes right, so it's a very short season and I suppose there will be a lot of learnings in that so it definitely is a good start for me, I suppose, and a good introduction to it.

“It's something it's hard to say no to, because it's a big position and that level of hurling is something I'd be passionate about as regards the coaching side of it anyway - coaching to get better as opposed to training to train.

“There's just so many different things involved and it's something I'm really interested in, yeah.”

In terms of carrying out a specific role in the set-up, Horgan - who was speaking at the launch of the AIB GOAL Mile is keeping an open mind, He is looking forward in particular to linking up with his friend and former team-mate, coach Dónal Óg Cusack.

“I would think, going in, it would be how could I help Dónal Óg and the lads on the coaching side of it.

“How could I just get [the players] thinking about their position, I suppose, and how they could be better and obviously what I could do to help them to be better and what kind of sessions could I put on for them, even if it was small, broken-up groups.

“I suppose it's a really good opportunity for me as well to learn from Dónal Óg because, from playing with him and seeing how he acts with the 20s, he's someone that you could learn an awful lot from.

“He's very determined and his standards are very, very high, as everybody knows, and just being around that kind of a person, I suppose, is definitely somewhere I'd like to be.”

It will be different to being in the Cork dressing-room that he occupied for almost two decades. The senior side will move on under Ben O’Connor and Horgan rates them among the favourites for honours again.

He does admit though, that had Pat Ryan stayed in charge and still wanted him, he may not have retired.

“I don't know,” he said.

“If he stayed on, he might have said that I had to go or whatever! But if he stayed and asked me to play, I couldn't say no to Pat.

“I'd probably never say no to him.”

AIB is proud to continue its support for the GOAL Mile for the fifth year and as part of the campaign, AIB is offering participants the chance to win €7,000, €2,000 or €1,000 for their Gaelic Games club by registering for their GOAL Mile and entering the AIB GAA GOAL Mile competition. See goalmile.org