Ben O'Connor's first interview as Cork manager - 'If you don’t take it, you might never again get a chance'

While becoming Cork hurling manager was never part of a masterplan for Ben O’Connor, it was an offer that did not need too much pondering.

The Newtownshandrum native will take charge of the team for the first time in next Sunday’s Canon O’Brien Cup game against UCC at the Mardyke.

It’s not something that was a long-term burning ambition, with success at club level – and a positive intervention by Jimmy Barry-Murphy – putting O’Connor on course for the role.

“When I finished hurling, I got out of hurling – I was going to the Cork matches and a few others but that was about it for an eight- or nine-year period.

“Then I got a chance inside in Charleville, I enjoyed it and I got a good kick out of it. Then I went to Midleton and I got a great kick down there as well. I just thought to myself, ‘You’re enjoying this thing.’ “Now, luckily enough, you were involved in teams that were in the shake-up, good bunches – it might be different if you were under pressure! – but it just evolved from there.

“Did I ever think I’d be involved with Cork? Probably not. It never entered my head until Jimmy Barry got on to me one day, saying, ‘Would you ever think of getting involved with the under-age? I think you should have a shot at the 20s.’ 

“I put my name forward for that and got it and I suppose it all kicked off from there. The bug was after landing and I was mad for road.” 

After Pat Ryan decided not to seek a new term after three years in charge, O’Connor was immediately installed as the favourite and gladly accepted when asked.

“When it became clear that Pat wasn't going forward, it was very simple,” he says.

“The thought-process was, ‘You’re being offered this now – if you don’t take it, you might never again get a chance, so it's either take it now or forget about it,’ that's the way it was.

“So, look, delighted – happy that I was in the shake-up to get it I'm just looking forward to it so much.

“Above all else, above anything else, I'm a Cork supporter. I'm Cork and proud of it – don't care who's involved, once Cork are winning.

“I know the way it is – there’ll be people saying I shouldn't be doing the job and people that are happy that I got the job; you can't keep everyone happy. For the last 20 years, I wanted every fella involved to win the All-Ireland for Cork, I'm going in next year, and I want to be winning for Cork - and whoever will come after me, I want them winning for Cork.” 

Winning for Cork was something O’Connor did as a player, earning five Munster SHC medals and three All-Irelands. Being on the sideline may not match the buzz of playing, but it’s a close second.

“It’s as close as you’ll get,” O’Connor says.

“Obviously, you’d love to be out there doing it yourself, but it’s nice when something works – you’re after doing something in training or saying something and then you see it working inside in a match.

“My main job is to make sure fellas are happy. If you have fellas happy and they’re enjoying it, I think you'll get more out of them, so that's the main thing that I'd be looking at.

“I'd be looking to have a happy camp – you're not going to keep everybody happy all the time, but we’ll try and keep as many of them happy for as much of the time as we can.

“I think that's a good platform to have.” While Niall O’Halloran had been part of the set-up O’Connor put together, the Ballinhassig native has since departed from his role as coach.

Ultimately, O’Connor ascribes that situation to two men with different philosophies coming to a mutual realisation and avoiding the sunk-cost fallacy.

“There was no bust-up,” he says.

“I was after looking at Niall’s CV and, obviously, it was a very good CV, I got Niall involved and I was delighted he came on board – and it just didn’t work out. Two different ways of operating.

“I said to Niall one day, ‘We’re not going to work together,’ and he said, ‘Probably not.’ He said, ‘You won’t be happy and I won’t be happy and that isn’t right.’ 

“We parted there, he wished us the best of luck and, as far as I’m concerned, myself and Niall. there’s no issues between us but it was [a case of] what was the point prolonging it when it wasn’t going to work long-term?

“That’s the way it finished, everything was amicable. There were stories going around that this happened and that happened – we had an honest conversation between the two of us and we agreed that it was probably the right thing for the two of us to split.” 

Otherwise, the focus is on trying to build on the past few years. While the memories of the disappointing second half of the All-Ireland final loss to Tipperary linger, they don’t overshadow a year that saw an Allianz League win as well as a Munster title.

“Obviously, there's a good squad of players there,” O’Connor says.

“We're hoping to add a few new names to it, we're hoping that our fellas will buy in and, obviously, we were in the last two All-Ireland finals, so we're there or thereabouts.

“It isn’t as if we’ve been in the doldrums for the last 15 years, we’re just looking to eke another small bit out of fellas.

“In fairness to Pat and his crew, they have a lot of the heavy lifting done - out of their three years, they were in two All-Ireland finals.

“Obviously, the All-Ireland final second half has to be addressed - that doesn't have to be addressed by me at all, the players will do that themselves, and we'll just forget about it, because that's done and dusted, we can't do anything about that, and we're looking forward.”