{"id":201750,"date":"2025-12-20T10:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T10:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/201750\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T10:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T10:41:07","slug":"ben-oconnors-first-interview-as-cork-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/201750\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben O’Connor’s first interview as Cork manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

While becoming Cork hurling manager was never part of a masterplan for Ben O\u2019Connor, it was an offer that did not need too much pondering.<\/p>\n

The Newtownshandrum native will take charge of the team for the first time in next Sunday\u2019s Canon O\u2019Brien Cup game against UCC at the Mardyke.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not something that was a long-term burning ambition, with success at club level \u2013 and a positive intervention by Jimmy Barry-Murphy \u2013 putting O\u2019Connor on course for the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I finished hurling, I got out of hurling \u2013 I was going to the Cork matches and a few others but that was about it for an eight- or nine-year period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen 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, \u2018You\u2019re enjoying this thing.\u2019 \u201cNow, luckily enough, you were involved in teams that were in the shake-up, good bunches \u2013 it might be different if you were under pressure! \u2013 but it just evolved from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I ever think I\u2019d be involved with Cork? Probably not. It never entered my head until Jimmy Barry got on to me one day, saying, \u2018Would you ever think of getting involved with the under-age? I think you should have a shot at the 20s.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Pat Ryan decided not to seek a new term after three years in charge, O\u2019Connor was immediately installed as the favourite and gladly accepted when asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it became clear that Pat wasn’t going forward, it was very simple,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought-process was, \u2018You\u2019re being offered this now \u2013 if you don\u2019t take it, you might never again get a chance, so it’s either take it now or forget about it,\u2019 that’s the way it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, look, delighted \u2013 happy that I was in the shake-up to get it I’m just looking forward to it so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all else, above anything else, I’m a Cork supporter. I’m Cork and proud of it \u2013 don’t care who’s involved, once Cork are winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the way it is \u2013 there\u2019ll 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BenBen O’Connor, the captain of Cork, holds the Liam MacCarthy Cup aloft at the homecoming for the victorious 2004 team. Picture: Inpho\/Morgan Treacy<\/p>\n

Winning for Cork was something O\u2019Connor 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\u2019s a close second.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as close as you\u2019ll get,\u201d O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you\u2019d love to be out there doing it yourself, but it\u2019s nice when something works \u2013 you\u2019re after doing something in training or saying something and then you see it working inside in a match.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main job is to make sure fellas are happy. If you have fellas happy and they\u2019re enjoying it, I think you’ll get more out of them, so that’s the main thing that I’d be looking at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d be looking to have a happy camp \u2013 you’re not going to keep everybody happy all the time, but we\u2019ll try and keep as many of them happy for as much of the time as we can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s a good platform to have.\u201d While Niall O\u2019Halloran had been part of the set-up O\u2019Connor put together, the Ballinhassig native has since departed from his role as coach.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, O\u2019Connor ascribes that situation to two men with different philosophies coming to a mutual realisation and avoiding the sunk-cost fallacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no bust-up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was after looking at Niall\u2019s CV and, obviously, it was a very good CV, I got Niall involved and I was delighted he came on board \u2013 and it just didn\u2019t work out. Two different ways of operating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to Niall one day, \u2018We\u2019re not going to work together,\u2019 and he said, \u2018Probably not.\u2019 He said, \u2018You won\u2019t be happy and I won\u2019t be happy and that isn\u2019t right.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe parted there, he wished us the best of luck and, as far as I\u2019m concerned, myself and Niall. there\u2019s no issues between us but it was [a case of] what was the point prolonging it when it wasn\u2019t going to work long-term?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the way it finished, everything was amicable. There were stories going around that this happened and that happened \u2013 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BenBen O’Connor in 2021, having coached Midleton to county glory – he is pictured with manager, the late Ger Fitzgerald, and selector Terence McCarthy, who is also part of the Cork set-up now. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n

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\u2019t overshadow a year that saw an Allianz League win as well as a Munster title.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there’s a good squad of players there,\u201d O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t as if we\u2019ve been in the doldrums for the last 15 years, we\u2019re just looking to eke another small bit out of fellas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While becoming Cork hurling manager was never part of a masterplan for Ben O\u2019Connor, it was an offer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-201750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}