Pat Mulcahy and Pat Ryan out of Cork manager race

Two of the men linked with the vacant Cork hurling manager’s post have ruled themselves out of contention to succeed Jimmy Barry-Murphy.

Pat Mulcahy, who led Cork IT to a Fitzgibbon Cup final and semi-final in the past two seasons, and Pat Ryan, manager of Sarsfields for county SHC wins in both 2012 and 2014, had both been mentioned as possible successors for Barry-Murphy, who resigned last Saturday night.

Both have cited other commitments as preventing them from being considered, however.

“To be mentioned as a possible candidate for the recent Cork vacancy is very much humbling,” Mulcahy said.

“However, given I have a young family and both my wife and I work full-time, it would not be possible to give this privileged position the time and commitment it fully deserves.

“Sometime in the future, I would like to think I could bring something to a Cork hurling team, as it’s something I’m passionate about. Unfortunately right now, for personal reasons, I cannot commit to it.

I wish Cork the very best in their search for a new manager.”

Ryan, aiming to lead Sars to a seventh county final in eight years and help the achieve back-to-back titles for the first time, is focused on club commitments for now, which would seemingly prevent him from taking up the role too.

“The focus is on Sarsfields and we have a huge game ahead of us at the weekend and that’s our only interest at the moment,” he said.

“We are fully confident the Cork County Board will appoint the best person for the job when the time is right.”

Other candidates, such as Kieran Kingston, a selector under Barry-Murphy in 2012 and 2013 and coach in 2014, his successor as coach Mark Landers, and former managers Donal O’Grady and John Allen have yet to indicate their intentions regarding the post.

Former Cork captain Tomás Mulcahy indicated on The Sunday Game three days ago “at this stage, it’s a ‘no’ for me.”

Mulcahy had been the favourite when Paddy Power opened a book on the post on Monday, but by yesterday Kingston had been backed in from a 4-1 shot to 1-3 favourite.