Donal O’Rourke joins Pat Ryan’s Rebel coaching ticket

Manager Pat Ryan has yet to unveil his backroom team, but it is expected O’Rourke will be among the new faces on the Cork sideline in 2023.

Wed, 27 Jul, 2022 - 06:00

Eoghan Cormican

Former Waterford hurler Donal O’Rourke is the new Cork hurling coach, the Irish Examiner understands.

Manager Pat Ryan has yet to unveil his backroom team, but it is expected that O’Rourke will be among the new faces on the Cork sideline in 2023.

A former Waterford goalkeeper, O’Rourke managed the county’s senior camogie team in 2018 and ‘19. In both years, Waterford were knocked out at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.

O’Rourke then joined Cork club, Erin’s Own, whom he coached to the 2020 Cork PSHC semi-final. Erin’s Own were unfancied heading into that 2020 season, but they ended up dumping out Sars at the quarter-final juncture before pushing Glen Rovers all the way to the finish line in the last four of the championship.

He double-jobbed in 2021, coaching both Erin’s Own and the Galway senior camogie team. The latter’s All-Ireland winning campaign is the standout achievement on O’Rourke’s CV.

It proved a one-season involvement, mind, as O’Rourke was not part of Galway’s unsuccessful title defence this year.

Pat Ryan’s backroom team is also expected to contain several of the personnel that were part of his management group when Cork landed back-to-back All-Ireland U20 hurling titles within six weeks of each other last summer, namely Wayne Sherlock, Donal O’Mahony, Brendan Coleman, and Fergal Condon.

O’Mahony is the current Cork U20 manager, so should he rejoin Ryan, that would leave a managerial vacancy, which would most likely go to 2021 All-Ireland minor winning Cork manager and 2022 senior selector Noel Furlong.

Changes are also likely to the Cork senior football backroom team ahead of next season. John Cleary was handed a three-year term last week, having served as interim manager in the place of Keith Ricken for much of this season.