Ryan leaves big shoes to fill, but is Sheedy the Man

(JJ Hurley)

The announcement at the weekend that Pat Ryan would not be seeking a new term with the Cork senior hurlers didn’t possibly come as a surprise.

Nobody could question the Sars man’s commitment to the job and the effort he gave.

Five years managing Cork teams to success takes its toll and a difficult personal year last year must have helped him make up his mind.

 It is now becoming a position similar to the Mayo football job, a poison chalice, as the calls grow from fans to bring home the McCarthy Cup.

It’s a thankless job, as Ryan’s predecessor Kieran Kingston found out.

Like all managers you are to blame, if you lose and forgotten if you win.

A kin to being in a gold fishbowl, if you will

So who is in line for the job?

Top of the list is Ben O’Connor, who had success with the Cork 20s, Middleton and Charleville, a man who also played a staring role on the field back in the day.

Also in the running are names such as current Cork U20s boss, Noel Furlong, Donal Og Cussack and another Sar’s man, Johnny Crowley.

The dark horse for the job has to be Liam Sheedy from Tipperary, who put his hand up a couple of years ago for the Cork job on the Sunday game.

Of course, the purists in Cork would thumb their noses up at the idea, but Cork need something different, don’t they?

Carrigaline GAA took the brave decision to take to the airways of social media and offered an open competition for its hurling manager.

Many in other clubs scoffed at the idea.

 Well, as Nigel Farage once famously said: ‘You are not laughing now’, at the fine job Eddie Murphy has done.

What ever way Cork go about this process, surely an open competition, involving an interview and presentation process should be the road pursued, as in any modern interview process for a senior position?

We have had enough of the Cork County Board simply passing on the baton - as it hasn’t worked.

Despite asking the county board for a comment on how the upcoming process will work, the powers that be at Pairc Ui Chaoimh are remaining tight lipped.

In previous times, the legendary Canon O’Brien was not a prominent hurler but he was a genius trainer and there have been others.

Cast your mind to other codes, Jurgen Klopp wasn’t exactly a World Cup winner with Germany.

The problem here is if we repeat the mistakes off the pitch in naming a manager, without shining a light in every corner to find the Messiah, we’ll continue to repeat the failures on the field.

 Could Tipp Man Liam Sheedy be Cork's saviour?