JIMMY BARRY-MURPHY last night stepped down as Cork senior hurling manager after four years in charge and it creates another vacancy in the Rebel county.
Cork GAA chiefs are already on the hunt for a new football boss after Brian Cuthbert’s departure but who will they turn to on the hurling front?
Cork are certain to stick with their tradition of selecting from within the county so here is some of the potential candidates.
1. Tomas Mulcahy
The long-term RTÉ Sunday Game pundit was recently linked with the post before Barry-Murphy had announced his departure. He insisted then that his desire was for Barry-Murphy to see out his tenure but Mulcahy may now come back into the frame.
The 1990 senior hurling winning captain has recent management experience at club level in Cork with his own club Glen Rovers and in Waterford with Lismore.
2. Mark Landers
The 1999 All-Ireland winning captain has been involved with the current Cork squad this year as the coach, drafted in by Barry-Murphy following the departure of Kieran Kingston. Landers has had several roles with his club Killeagh and was also a former UCC Fitzgibbon Cup manager.
3. Kieran Kingston
Kingston stepped down from his role with the Cork senior hurlers due to work commitments this year, having served as first selector and then coach for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 campaigns.
Previously Kingston was involved with his club Tracton and is well respected by the current Cork squad. His son Shane, who is sidelined at the moment with a serious leg injury, is one of the county’s brightest prospects in hurling and football, starring at minor level in recent seasons.
4. Donal O’Grady
Could the 2004 All-Ireland winning manager become another boss who gets a second term of office? O’Grady was lauded for his contribution in steering Cork back to success.
He has since been at the helm of Limerick and is a sharp hurling analyst for RTÉ and The Sunday Game.
5. John Allen
Another former All-Ireland winning manager, Allen was at the helm when Cork triumphed in 2005. He went on to take charge of the Limerick senior hurlers in 2012 and 2013, guiding them to their first Munster crown in 17 years two seasons ago.
6. Pat Ryan
The most successful club coach in Cork in recent times, Ryan has guided his native Sarsfields to 2012 and 2014 Cork senior hurling title wins.
They were unlucky last year to lose out to Kilmallock in a thrilling Munster first round tie with the Limerick club going on to contest the All-Ireland final on St Patrick’s Day last.
As a player, Ryan was a substitute on the 1999 Cork All-Ireland winning side.
7. Pat Mulcahy
Mulcahy was a defender with Cork, winning two All-Ireland senior medals in 2004 and 2005. He also picked up an Allstar award in 2005.
The Newtownshandrum native has been in charge of the Cork IT Fitzgibbon Cup team in recent years, guiding them to finals in 2012 and 2014 but they were defeated on both occasions.
Please not Landers, the man is a spoofer
I think ye should try get Davy Fitz. Very highly regarded here in clare. spare no expense.
He is highly regarded everywhere, isn’t he ?
1 manager and 6 selectors?
Isn’t it great that people like Donal Og aren’t even mentioned here, or certainly won’t figure cause Frank Murphy, one power hungry man, has more of a say over Cork GAA than the entire remaining populace? Should we rebrand as the “Murphy Rebels”?
Pat Ryan has tremendous record as manager of Sarsfields. He certainly would bring a methodical approach to training. The question is does he want the job?
Tomas Mulcahy has very little coaching or managerial experience so hopefully he won’t get it.
Pat Mulcahy would bring a lot of experience to the job and would know a lot of up and coming players well from his CIT job.
Donal O Grady has all the credentials but should we go back in time.
Landers,Allen and Kingston would be viewed as outsiders.
It’s Pat Ryan or Pat Mulcahy for me.
At least three of those guys faces just don’t fit, as far as the mandarins are concerned.
Thomas mulcahy, Donal o Grady and John Allen would not touch it id say. Pat Ryan or Pat mulcahy would be decent but of this group CB will give it to East Cork spoofer Mark landers.
No mention of trying to get Ger Cunningham back from Dublin. Hugely respected by the players. Pat Ryan has done well with Sars but that was a successful Dars outfit before he was manager so not sure how good he actually is. Pat Mul shot himself in the foot a couple of weeks ago by saying Cork were beaten by non contenders in Galway and that Tipp would beat them easily so not so sure how good a judge he is.
I wonder would all the Donal Og followers have a different view now about the rubbish he was spouting about the current underage structures in Cork. Considering the huge success of all the Cirk development squads yesterday.
That success won’t be reviewed highly until it’s converted to minor and hopefully 21s. It’s a start though
Eddie. The dev squad wins are certainly welcome. But the facts remain – no u21 since ’97, no minor since ’01 and no senior since ’05. Now if that isn’t symptomatic of a crisis in Cork hurling, what is?
Donal Og is spot on in everythung he says.
Of coarse we would love to be winning more minors and u-21′s but that’s not why Cork were beaten by Galway on that particular day. As Tony Cosidine pointed out if underage success was everything then Clare seniors shout be hammering Cork every year with all their underage success. Of coarse they beat us in the final ’13 but that was the only time and they haven’t won a Munster championship in 17 years.
You’re right Rory it needs to transfer to minor and u-21 unfortunately there’s no guarantee that it will. I’m just trying to highlight the tremendous work currently being done with the development squads. Something some people would like to ignore and give the impression that there is nothing been done and give the impression the whole thing is s disaster.
Sean o brien from midleton has been the best hurling coach in cork for last 15 years
Sean o brien from midleton is the best and most successful coach in cork..
Is frank not running the show ?