{"id":428779,"date":"2026-05-02T13:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428779\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:56:09","slug":"whos-hurlings-greatest-player-manager-ranking-the-top-15-dual-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428779\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s hurling\u2019s greatest player-manager? Ranking the top 15 dual careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you could combine an individual\u2019s playing career with his coaching one, whose would be the most outstanding? Who would compromise your greatest hurling composites?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done here, after picking and ranking football\u2019s top 15 recently.<\/p>\n

Again, some big names miss out, primarily because they hadn\u2019t enough experience or exposure of coaching or managing for an extensive period of time.<\/p>\n

Christy Ring was given much consideration for how vital a role he played as a mentor \u2013 in every sense of the term \u2013 to the three-in-a-row Cork team of the late \u201870s and others, but ultimately he would have needed more time on the field leading sessions and teams to make it over (even more) worthy candidates. Similarly Henry Shefflin, another member of the players\u2019 Mount Rushmore, hasn\u2019t yet done enough as a coach.<\/p>\n

Conversely, the lack of a high-level playing career eliminated some outstanding coaches and managers of the modern era like Cyril Farrell and Dermot Healy. Even John Kiely, Liam Griffin, Johnny Clifford, Miche\u00e1l O\u2019Donoghue and Derek McGrath, who all played a few years for their county, didn\u2019t make it because their candidacy was lopsided.<\/p>\n

At least when you compare it to the following\u2026<\/p>\n

15. ANTHONY DALY: The only figure here who didn\u2019t coach a team to an All-Ireland but still had to be included for being not just the man who declared that Clare were no longer the whipping boys of Munster but seeing to it that Dublin were no longer the whipping boys of Leinster; nearly as impressive as captaining Clare to their first Munster title in 63 years and their first All-Ireland in 81 was inspiring Dublin to their first league in 72 years and their first Leinster in 52 \u2013 Bob O\u2019Keeffe had also been a missing person for far too long. An exceptional leader of men.<\/p>\n

\n 14. \u00c9AMONN CREGAN: Remarkably still has claim to be Limerick\u2019s greatest post-Mackey player. Often cut an irritable, frustrated figure as a coach, particularly during his three disappointing stints over his native county, but remained a profound influence, helping Jamie Wall kickstart the Mary I revolution, as well as presiding over Offaly at their apex.<\/p>\n

\n 13. LIAM CAHILL: Will feel he underachieved as a player despite \u2013 or even because of \u2013 winning an All-Star at 19, but that realisation has driven him to get the most out of his players and himself as a coach. Oversaw possibly the best turnaround All-Ireland win ever<\/a> in every sense: six points down at half-time, fifth in Munster the year before.<\/p>\n

\"TipperaryTipperary manager Liam Cahill is congratulated by former Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy after the 2025 All-Ireland hurling final. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Along with the league won in Waterford and the three underage All-Irelands with Tipp, he\u2019s making a case to be the second-best manager of the Kiely era.<\/p>\n

\n 12. DONAL O\u2019GRADY: As a player he was solid, steady, a winner: with the Barrs he won four All-Irelands (two in football) and nine counties; with Cork, four Munsters and the Centenary All-Ireland. As a coach of Cork, he stayed only two years but transformed them and the sport, installing both the first high-performance setup and possession game inter-county hurling had known. He also laid similar foundations in Limerick, even if his departure from there can obscure that.<\/p>\n

\n 11. NICKY ENGLISH: Another who crammed a lot into a rather short-lived inter-county managerial career, including a badly-needed All-Ireland. In English\u2019s case it only enhanced the legend he\u2019d formed as a player. Even before he helped end the Famine he\u2019d won three All-Stars and five Fitzgibbons, then added another three All-Stars to go with five Munsters and two All-Irelands.<\/p>\n

\n 10. OLLIE WALSH: Probably the main reason why we haven\u2019t gone with a goalkeeper-to-corner forward format here; how could we leave out him or Davy? As a player he won four All-Irelands as a starter, keeping not just the ball out but Noel Skehan out of the team; then as a coach led the county to back-to-back All-Irelands in the early \u201890s.<\/p>\n

\n 9. LIAM SHEEDY: Had the most modest playing career of anyone else on this list, though there\u2019s an honour in that too for how he persevered to finally break into the Tipp team \u2013 and play in an All-Ireland final \u2013 at 27. As a manager he was the 21st century prototype, knowing when to dictate and when to delegate; one of his gifts to the game was his recruitment and championing of his successors and eventual predecessors Eamon O\u2019Shea and Michael Ryan. His reward in return were All-Ireland final wins over Kilkenny teams that no one thought could be beaten, or at least by Tipp.<\/p>\n

\n 8. BRIAN LOHAN: Tony Kelly might have got it slightly wrong in his brilliantly-improvised 2024 All-Ireland<\/a> winning acceptance speech: Loughnane will always be the Father from whom all stems but that still makes Lohan the son of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ClareClare captain Tony Kelly and manager Brian Lohan lift the Liam McCarthy cup after winning the 2024 All-Ireland hurling final. Pic:\u00a0\u00a9INPHO\/Tom Maher<\/p>\n

As a player he personified the ruthlessness and resilience of that Clare team and their manager while as a coach himself, after serving his apprenticeship on the Fitzgibbon and club circuit, he replanted those qualities into the Clare team and psyche. Is it better to be loved or feared? In Clare, Lohan is both.<\/p>\n

\n 7. JUSTIN McCARTHY: As a player he was one of the finest stickmen and stylists Cork has ever produced, as evident by him winning Hurler of the Year at just 21. A motorbike accident curtailed his inter-county playing career and All-Ireland medal count but initiated one of the most varied and finest and influential coaching careers the sport has known. Antrim. Clare. Cashel. Cork in \u201984. And most gloriously of all, Waterford.<\/p>\n

\n 6. PAT HENDERSON As a centre-back he was so good and hardy he kept his brother Ger off the Kilkenny team of the century. Then immediately upon finishing up a playing career that included five All-Irelands, he took over the training of the team, leading to further September triumphs in \u201979, \u201982 and \u201983. An understated leader, he continued to serve as his club\u2019s county board delegate up to last year.<\/p>\n

\n 5. DAVY FITZGERALD: Maybe his magic has worn off but for 30 consecutive years he was a compelling hurling figure. If he doesn\u2019t bury that 21-yard free when Clare were stuttering along in the first half of the 1995 Munster final, do we ever hear what Anthony Daly sounds like? As a coach he continued as something of a breakthrough specialist, inspiring LIT\u2019s first Fitzgibbon, Waterford\u2019s first All-Ireland final appearance in 45 years, Clare\u2019s first Liam MacCarthy Cup win in 16 years and Wexford\u2019s only Leinster of the past 21 years.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n 4. JIMMY BARRY-MURPHY: The most universally loved Cork sportsperson of all because of his class. As a hurler, footballer, coach, man, in victory and defeat, as most recently evident by how he dealt with the latter of those imposters upon his beloved Barrs losing an epic Munster football final to Dingle. The ignominy of \u201996 may have temporarily rattled that relationship with the Cork public but that darkest hour only made \u201999 all the brighter. Without him there is no \u201973, no three-in-a-row, no Centenary All-Ireland, no party in 1999.<\/p>\n

\n 3. BABS KEATING: Has had a more strained and complex relationship with his home county\u2019s support base than JBM has had with his but still remains probably the most important figure in Tipperary hurling of the last 60 years, helping bridge the gap from \u201964 to \u201971, and then most famously of all, the gap from there to \u201987 and \u201989.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TipperaryTipperary manager Michael “Babs” Keating during the 1989 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final against Galway. Pic: Ray McManus\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

No one else could have galvanised the county like he did in \u201987 and that was rooted in his confidence and credibility as a player.<\/p>\n

\n 2. GER LOUGHNANE: The only one here never to compete in an All-Ireland as a player and yet here he is, second only to an old colleague from St Pat\u2019s Training College. Because realise this: Loughnane the player was as good and ferociously competitive and defiant as he was a manager. His two All-Stars and two league titles as much as those two heart-breaking Munster final losses to Cork would shape those two All-Irelands he\u2019d win as a manager.<\/p>\n

\n 1. BRIAN CODY: In his autobiography that was released in 2009 just weeks after he\u2019d overseen the four in a row, it takes until the 25th chapter to touch upon his inter-county playing career. Even after that the back-to-back All-Ireland triumphs of \u201982 and \u201983 in which he tied up Ray Cummins and JBM are barely mentioned. That\u2019s just how much his managerial career towers over everything and everyone. But add it all up \u2013 the three Celtic Crosses he won as a player to go with the 11 he presided over as a manager \u2013 and it\u2019s more than anyone in either code, even Micko (four as a player, eight as a manager).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you could combine an individual\u2019s playing career with his coaching one, whose would be the most outstanding?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[177329,1965,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-428779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-championship-2026","tag-hurling","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428779","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=428779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}