Three-person selection committee to oversee Cork hurling manager appointment

A three-person selection committee will oversee the appointment of the new Cork hurling manager, the Irish Examiner understands.

The committee is to be made up of Cork county board chairman Pat Horgan, Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan, and county board vice-chairman Noel O’Callaghan.

The Cork executive has typically opted for a five-person selection committee when filling such managerial vacancies, as was the case for the recent Cork U20 football interviews and when two of the frontrunners for the current senior hurling job, Ben O’Connor and Noel Furlong, went head-to-head for the U20 gig this month three years ago.

Horgan and O’Donovan were both part of that U20 selection committee three years ago, with the five-man group split between O’Connor and Furlong, before the former prevailed and was handed a two-year term, which included All-Ireland glory in his maiden 2023 season.

It remains to be seen if the smaller selection committee on this occasion will work in favour of either.

O’Connor coached county chairman Pat Horgan’s club, Midleton, to Cork Premier Senior glory in 2021. Furlong, meanwhile, is a product of the managerial pathway introduced by CEO Kevin O’Donovan, first getting involved at U15 development squad level before rising to minor manager in 2021, where he oversaw All-Ireland success.

He succeeded O’Connor as Cork U20 boss last summer, the team losing out at the Munster semi-final stage in the first of the two-year term he was given.

Diarmuid O’Sullivan and Johnny Crowley were also part of that U20 race in the autumn of 2022, with their proposed ticket seeing O’Sullivan wear the title of manager and Crowley the title of coach.

The roles have since swapped, Crowley the lead sideline figure as Sars won Cork honours in 2023 and, last winter, became the first Cork club since 2009 to land the provincial crown.

Crowley, along with O'Connor and Furlong, is another to be linked to the vacant senior post.

There is strong speculation that Pat Ryan's successor will be ready for ratification by next Tuesday's Cork county board meeting.

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