Eoin Cadogan commits to Cork hurlers in 2018

Eoin Cadogan was back training with Cork last night - but with a hurley and sliotar, not a football - confirming his decision to switch codes and commit to the Cork hurlers in 2018.

The 31-year-old has joined up with John Meyler’s pre-season hurling panel after deciding to return to the code he last played at inter-county level in 2014.

The decision is a boost to the new Cork management team in the wake of defender Steven McDonnell’s recent decision to take a year out from inter-county hurling. Cadogan would slot comfortably into either full or half-back line for the Rebels.

The flip side? Cadogan’s decision is a blow to new Cork football manager Ronan McCarthy, a Douglas club-mate of Cadogan’s, who could certainly use his leadership on the field and in the dressing-room as he prerpares to draft in fresh-faced rookies into the Rebels’ national league campaign.

Though both Eoin and his brother Alan Cadogan have (briefly) lined out together for the Cork footballers, against Donegal in a 2016 Championship qualifier, they have yet to represent the county together at hurling.

Eoin maintained a dual role with Cork from 2009 through to 2012, when he was part of the Cork side beaten in an All-Ireland semi-final by Galway. He concentrated exclusively on football in 2013 before returning briefly to the hurling squad in 2014.

He won an All-Ireland with the county’s footballers in 2010, a Munster title two years later and has collected four NFL winners’ medals.

Cadogan has represented his province on several occasions and country three times, the most recent being the two-test International Rules series in Adelaide and Perth.

He was fitness coach to the Cork Under 21 hurlers last season, when John Meyler was in charge.

“He has vast experience and these kinds of guys are going to be critical in the new Munster championship when there are four matches in five Sundays,” Meyler told RTÉ in November.

Cadogan continues to play both codes with his club Douglas and was a star turn at centre half-back with the hurlers as they just fell short of a county final appearance in 2014, losing in a semi replay to eventual winners Glen Rovers.