{"id":42987,"date":"2025-09-04T11:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/42987\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:44:10","slug":"its-a-blank-canvas-excited-to-play-under-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/42987\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s a blank canvas, excited to play under him’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cork senior hurler Mark Coleman says he\u2019s excited to work under new manager Ben O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

The Newtownshandrum native was appointed on a three-year term on Tuesday as he replaced Pat Ryan after the latter decided not to seek a new term at the helm.<\/p>\n

The Rebels have lost the last two All-Ireland finals with O\u2019Connor inheriting a talented group of players.<\/p>\n

It’s a new era as Cork chase a first Liam MacCarthy trophy since 2005 in the next campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBen was the obvious candidate,\u201d Coleman said to The Echo after winning a EPH Controls Muskerry GAA award on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Cork senior hurling manager Ben O’Connor. Picture: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a lot of success with the Cork U20s. I wouldn\u2019t know him personally, but it looks like a good appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the current players would have looked up to Ben as a player. He has a strong backroom team in with him. I am looking forward to getting going with the new management.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blank canvas for us. Growing up, Ben was on the successful All-Ireland winning teams, the two black tapes halfway down the hurley always stood out. I am excited to play under him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pat Ryan\u2019s tenure didn\u2019t end the way he or anyone in Cork would have liked, but despite not landing that elusive All-Ireland crown, he did help the Leesiders to Division 1A league success and Munster silverware this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you can ask for is to leave it in a better place and Pat definitely did that,\u201d the Blarney star says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brought a lot of players through and improved the players that were there when he took over. It was disappointing to see him leave because we spent three years together and we were hoping he would go for a fourth year, but it was his decision to move on and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

\"MarieMarie Casey, EPH Controls, Mark Coleman, latest EPH Controls Muskerry GAA award winner, and John Feeney, Muskerry GAA chairman. Picture: Anne O’Riordan<\/p>\n

\u201cPat had a great knowledge of hurling. He helped us play the game in a different way over the last couple of years than we did previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to move on and look forward to next season under the new management.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now that the dust has firmly settled on the campaign for the Rebels, Coleman is eager to look on the bright side despite the All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to write off the season as a bad year just because of a poor half of hurling,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take the positives. It was a big monkey off our back winning the league and the Munster championship. It was a pity we couldn\u2019t get over the line in the All-Ireland final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at it as a whole over the past year or two, we have definitely taken another step forward in 2025. Hopefully we can keep building.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Mark Coleman on the move against Tipperary this year. Picture: INPHO\/Ryan Byrne<\/p>\n

Coleman was picked as the latest EPH Controls Muskerry GAA award winner on the back of his displays at wing-back for the Cork senior hurling team this year. It\u2019s not the first time the 27-year-old won this award, he also won it back in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always nice from the Muskerry Board to have these awards in place. It brings you back to where it all started. It\u2019s nice to have a night like tonight to grow into yourself and get back to where it all started in Mid-Cork.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork senior hurler Mark Coleman says he\u2019s excited to work under new manager Ben O\u2019Connor. The Newtownshandrum native…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-42987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}