Cork Hurling: Liam Sheedy for the hotseat? History would suggest not

During the 2010s, whenever the Cork football manager’s vacancy arose – and it happened a few times – there were calls for a major change in direction.

The thought-process roughly went along the lines of hiring Jack O’Connor, given that his palmarès as a manager would be exactly what the county needed. It never happened, of course, and O’Connor is doing fine; but it was never going to happen.

While Cork have had non-natives as managers – Larry Tompkins in football and John Meyler in hurling – both had become naturalised Leesiders, playing for clubs here and being selected for the county sides.

They could never be termed ‘outside managers’ and such a Rubicon is unlikely to be crossed at any stage in the near future.

All of which is a way of saying that, while there have been some noises in recent days about the idea of Liam Sheedy – or even Davy Fitzgerald – succeeding Pat Ryan as Cork hurling manager, such an outcome would be unlikely to materialise.

Let us be clear: this is not a personal opinion stating that Cork should not appoint an outsider, but rather what we can expect to happen in the recruitment process, based on what we have seen over the course of a few decades.

Jack O'Connor was regularly suggested as a potential Cork manager in the 2010s but it was never a runner. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

There is a saying, ascribed to the Dublin-born Duke of Wellington but most likely said by Daniel O’Connell about the Duke, that not everything born in a stable is a horse. County lines were created by the ruling British authorities for administrative purposes but obviously they have come to mean much more than that.

PEDIGREE

Liam Sheedy has a strong pedigree, with two All-Irelands won, and even if we were to imagine a world where he got the job, obviously he would approach it in the same professional manner that he did with Tipp, but it's hard to imagine that the quest for glory with Cork would be as emotionally strong as that which propelled Tipperary to glory in 2010 and 2019.

In more functional terms, one would imagine that part of the board’s rationale for looking internally is regarding familiarity the scene in the county. Another consideration is what we might term the expenses issue in terms of outside managers: Cork’s policy is to avoid such outlays and, with a debt on SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh that isn’t going to be downwardly mobile any time soon, they wouldn’t be feasible.

A final thing of note on that front is the fact that the last time the Liam MacCarthy Cup was won by a county with a non-native manager was in 1998, when Galway man Michael Bond led Offaly to glory. Like Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary have always appointed from within – there is a matter of pride involved, too.

Wexford native John Meyler managed Cork in 2018 and 2019 but could not be considered an 'outside manager'. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Another thing that has shallowed the pool of prospective candidates in recent times is that the manager has been a former Cork player – the last county boss not to do so was Fr Michael O’Brien, in charge from 1990-93. Current U20 manager Noel Furlong is believed to be in the mix this time around and he would bridge such a gap, but the Carrigtwohill man, a county SHC winner in 2011, did represent the county at underage level.

We’ve already used one equine quote and here’s another, courtesy of Arrigo Sacchi, who enjoyed success as AC Milan head coach, despite the lack of a playing career of any repute: “I never realised that in order to become a jockey you have to have been a horse first.”

There is nothing which says that one would have had to have played for Cork at any level in order to successfully manage the team.

Equally, though, the lack of that stature would bring an extra layer of pressure to such an appointee.

And, as we all know, it’s pressurised enough as it is.

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