New Cork era brings new options for free-taking – and plenty of them
Darragh Fitzgibbon of Cork is tackled by Ryan Taylor of Clare in the Munster Hurling Championship at Cusack Park in Ennis. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
With the Cork hurlers’ Munster Senior League campaign getting underway on Wednesday, at the TUS Gaelic Grounds against Limerick (7.35pm), it’s another opportunity to see how the early stages of Ben O’Connor’s tenure unfold and what changes will be made from last season under Pat Ryan.
O’Connor’s first game – the Canon O’Brien Cup clash – went UCC’s way, with William Buckley scoring the wining point.
But, of the team lining out in red and black, plenty there will have been watched as closely by O’Connor as his own experimental Cork side.
Few things capture that better than the question of what will happen to placed balls in a post-Patrick Horgan world for Cork.
Ben Cunningham, who scored 1-10 (1-8 f, 0-1 65) for UCC without a miss from a placed ball, will be one of many in the conversation to take on the duties in 2026.
Whether he becomes a long-term option for Cork will depend, first and foremost, on whether he can secure a starting role. That’s something O’Connor has made clear will be earned rather than assumed, for everyone on the panel.
Declan Dalton and Darragh Fitzgibbon remain the most obvious incumbents.
Both have carried the responsibility at inter-county level at various stages in recent seasons, Dalton often from range and Fitzgibbon stepping in whenever Horgan was absent. Against UCC, it was Dalton, Jack Cahalane and Colm McCarthy who shouldered the duties, each contributing from placed balls in defeat.
Cahalane and McCarthy have been regulars on placed balls for their clubs, Cahalane scoring 5-25 (0-15 f, 1-0 pen, 0-1 65) in the league and 2-10 (0-1 f) in the championship for the Barrs, while McCarthy totalled 2-42 (0-27 f) in the league and 0-47 (0-33 f, 0-4 65) in championship as Sarsfields won the double.
The side named to face Limerick will likely look very different to the one that started against UCC, particularly with the Fitzgibbon Cup now in motion. UCC’s involvement means the absence of a significant cohort, forcing further rotation and further opportunity.
UCC are in action against MTU on Thursday, January 8, so O’Connor’s side will not include Fr O’Neill’s goalkeeper Paudie O’Sullivan, Eoin Downey, Cunningham, William Buckley, Brian Keating, Hugh O’Connor and Timmy Wilk.
Only three players that started against UCC – Cormac O’Brien, Ethan Twomey and Jack O’Connor – featured across last year’s senior championship. The rest were either on the fringes of the panel, or are newcomers entirely.
O’Brien was the only one of those three players to start or feature in the Munster final win over Limerick, and his previous championship experience leaves him well placed to regain a spot in the starting 15 under O’Connor.
He impressed against UCC, as did Seán Desmond and Cian Darcy, the latter of which also did well in Cork’s challenge game against MTU in December.
Of those named on the bench ahead of the meeting with UCC, all but Killeagh’s Barry Walsh and Daire O’Leary were part of last year’s panel. Although O’Leary ended up starting in the Canon O’Brien Cup fixture, and has previously been involved with Cork.
Still U20-eligible, and already comfortable on placed balls, Barry Walsh comes in off the back of his first season playing senior for Killeagh, and his long-term development beyond 2026 will be of greatest interest to O’Connor.
Mark Coleman and Shane Kingston have both been free takers for their club and county and are some of the more experienced players with Cork, while Robbie O’Flynn, Alan Connolly and Tim O’Mahony were all on placed ball duties for their clubs in the 2025 championship and are viable options.
Jack Leahy and Brian O’Sullivan – while neither will be viewed as immediate solutions – aren’t complete outsiders either.
Both are unlikely to come straight into the Cork team, but have got plenty of experience with frees. Leahy has been the taker for his club and division, while O’Sullivan took on some of the long distances frees for Kanturk in league and championship this year.
The free-taking role will likely be shared again for the Munster Senior Hurling League, with two or three players getting the nod in the National League, but there are many options for Ben O’Connor to consider.
Cork have huge depth in that area, and plenty of those options come from the newer faces added to the setup.
For a team entering a new chapter, that can only be a healthy place to start.
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