“He seems like a perfectionist, his hurling brain is really exciting”

Anticipation and excitement reign as Patrick Horgan looks forward to getting to work with Cork’s new analysis coach Donal O’Grady.

During lean times for the county’s hurling team, the return of their lost messiah has lifted spirits. No All-Ireland in 16 years, O’Grady was the mastermind when the Rebels last scaled hurling’s peak and the hope is there that he can re-invigorate his county once again.

Back in the glory days, O’Grady inspired Cork with a short-passing style that was alien at the time and both his innovation and vast knowledge of the game are widely respected amongst hurling followers.

“I wouldn’t have worked with Donal or I wouldn’t have known him until this year. But looking on, when he was over the Cork team from 2003-2005, he seems like a perfectionist, he had all his players on the same wavelength, playing to a really good system at the time.

“It’s just exciting the way he worked, his knowledge of the game obviously, his hurling brain is really exciting, to pick his brain about things,” says Horgan at the launch of Sports Direct’s sponsorship of the county team.

“He understands whether you’re a forward or a back, he understands the position in the field that you’re on. The speed of the game, and what’s expected. I think it’s very exciting, obviously we’ve had a few chats over Zoom now, but really looking forward to getting chatting to him in the coming months face-to-face and we’ll see what we can get out of it…”

With a lack of silverware comes criticism. The ‘Cork style’ has caused debate in recent times with former player and manager Justin McCarthy suggesting that a more direct game would suit the team but the Cork captain has no interest in ‘outside noise.’

“Who said it? He’s a good hurling man like but I think giving your opinion about someone else’s panel when you’re not inside in the training sessions with the 50 or 60 people in total trying to get the best out of a team…I think as a team, we know what’s best for us and that’s something we’ll keep pursuing.

“Outside noise like that – these fellas have been unbelievable hurling people down through the years but it’s something we can’t get into, and we won’t. Because when we’re going right, we know what we need to do to click and that’s the pursuit we’re on…a pursuit to perfect our performance and we feel we’re on the right road and we’ll stay on that road.”

As for suggestions that Limerick are stretching the gap from the rest by their sheer physicality, Horgan is of the opinion that gym work alone won’t guarantee anything.

“No, I think we’ve shown in the last two or three years that, if you look back over the games – I’m not going to make it up, it’s in black and white – but if you look back over the games we’ve played with Limerick, we probably should have beaten them in an All-Ireland semi-final the year they won it.

“We were up by six with eight to play and kind of threw it away. We drew with them down in the páirc the following summer, we beat them in Limerick twice. So as a head to head in the last three years, I’d like to know who has the upper hand. So I think we have the ammunition not only to beat Limerick, but to beat a lot of teams – that’s the same attitude as all teams will have about their own team but I think we’ve a really good team. It’s not all about strength, we’ve a lot of pace, a lot of hurlers. At the end of the day, if you go to the gym all year – it won’t guarantee anything. You need to combine everything and get the best out of yourself and I think we can do that.”