Indo Sport
Hurling check-in | Box-office Ben O'Connor, Kilkenny's decline & Cork's new era
04 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish independent podcast. Hurling fans, we have neglected you. And for that, I apologize. The National League is two rounds old, but the small ball hasn't got a whole pile of mentions on the Indosport podcast. Today, that changes. And we have enlisted the most hurling of hurling men to guide us through the early season talking points. Michael, Vernie, welcome back to the show.
How's it going, Will? Hang your head in shame. Do never ever, ever put Hurling in the corner.
Chapter 2: What updates are provided on the National Hurling League?
I know, I know. I'm glad you actually took my call to come on because such has been our lack of Hurling coverage in the last couple of weeks. But we wanted to rectify that. That's why we got you on because we know you're the ideal man, as I said, to give us the lay of the land after the first couple of weeks of the Hurling league season. But first, RGA Podcast Coverage is sponsored by AIB.
They are proud sponsors of both club and county action. AIB proudly celebrate the joy, dedication and support that lies at the heart of Gaelic games in every community and player across the country. Michael, of course, can be found over on the INOGA feed. New podcasts there every week about football and hurling.
Has one out today with John Milan and Pat Ryan, the former Limerick hurler that you can listen to as well. And one last thing before we kick off. As regular listeners to our podcast will know, we're always keen to get your feedback and input on the episodes we do here on Indoor Sport. It only takes a minute, but could you please go to mypodcastfeedback.com. That's mypodcastfeedback.com.
Enter the code GAA, answer a couple of questions, and you'll be in with a chance to win a €500 one-for-all voucher. If you could do that, we would much appreciate it. Michael, as I said, two rounds into the Hurling League, round three this weekend, and... Looking in from the outside, you'll be able to give us a good view on this.
For me, there's one main character of this league campaign thus far, and I think you know who I'm going to say, and it's Ben O'Connor. He's been very, obviously, colourful in some of his comments around the state of the game, which we can get to in a little bit. But am I reading that right? Are Cork kind of the main character team, and is he the main character individual?
Definitely will, yeah. I said it the day after the All-Ireland final. I just thought such was the scale of the no-show in the second half of the All-Ireland final that something would have to change, something significant. And I thought that would be on the sideline, to be honest with you, because I just thought if Pat Ryan and his managing team came back...
I don't know how you would stare into that again when push comes to shove, do you know what I mean? So I thought they needed something new and I would have, you know, met Ben on the pitch a couple of times and off the pitch as well and just very straight talking.
As you can see, like he does not, there's no, like he doesn't polish what he's saying, he says exactly what he's thinking and it makes for great copy, it makes for great audio, it spices things up. Even he said about Tipperary this weekend, he said, you know, this is the one, this is the match we've really been looking forward to. You know,
And he's not going to say, oh, we're taking it game by game or we're taking it session by session. He's saying it exactly how he thinks it. By all accounts, the pre-season that Cork put in was 10 weeks of fair hell by all accounts. And it was a lot of mental tests as much as physical tests.
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Chapter 3: What are Ben O'Connor's views on the current state of hurling?
Of course there will be.
Yeah, and from your perspective, and with Ben O'Connor obviously coming in, is it more of a he needs to kind of cleanse the mentality and kind of get them over the line from a mental perspective? Or are there personnel issues you think he needs to solve? Are there tactical issues you think he needs to solve? Because I don't remember Pat Ryan getting...
much criticism for how he was setting the team up it was more how the players kind of dealt with kind of pressure scenarios almost by the end that he was getting out of flack for so is that what Ben O'Connor is doing is that what you're looking at or is there a few other bits and pieces as well what kind of jumps out to you from that perspective he's kind of said it already like it's just because of what a half of Hurling doesn't mean it's broken so he's going to generally go with what served him well last year and that was playing three inside but like they've already you can already see Rob Downey sitting back a bit deeper now
potentially even playing sweeper at times and just giving their full back then a bit more cover to make sure they're not exposed like maybe John McGrath, Darren McCarthy and Jason Ford exposed him in the All-Ireland final so he'll go with a lot of what got them to the biggest dance of the year last year and he will just fine tune a few things I think the mental toughness and steeliness is the big one Will and I think it's something he will definitely go after
And I don't think he'll go after that by them sitting in rooms for two hours talking about things. I think he'll go after that by what he demands in training, the level of, you know, and I suppose the difficulty of the pre-season they put in. Trying to break lads a small bit mentally in that respect.
And if lads pass those tests, which it looks like a lot of them already have, that's a big thing to have under the belt already. Because I'm sure he would have tried to hurt them or break them or just chip them away a little bit mentally in that pre-season.
And it seems like a lot of them have come out with flying colours and he's speaking very glowingly of them already because he knows what he's put them through and he knows the tests that they've passed already. And I'm sure that's little percentages on the way to passing what will be big, big tests later on in the summer.
It's interesting you say he's speaking glowingly about the Cork players because he certainly isn't speaking glowingly about the kind of the state of modern hurling. Obviously, he's kind of a fresh set of eyes that we wouldn't have heard from so much in the mainstream because obviously he wasn't the Cork manager until this campaign. So I just want to read out these quotes.
I know you guys discussed them on your podcast. I want to be interested to get your opinion because we discussed them on Bits and Bobs yesterday and Joe said, be interested to know what hurling men, hurling people like yourself make of them and if you agree with them. So after the Galway game at the weekend, he said, we've gone like soccer, aren't we?
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Chapter 4: How is Cork's performance shaping up after the All-Ireland final?
Like we've seen in all Ireland finals in recent years, they are refereed completely differently than any other game in the Hurling calendar. But like we have certain, you know, rules that have to be abided by.
Because I was saying yesterday, remember that Munster final, I think it was like two years ago. And the referee got so much praise for letting everything go. And then he was never seen from again. It was one of the Clare Limerick Munster finals.
it was 2022 it was John Keenan yeah now in fairness he got the he didn't get I don't know if he got another game that year but he got the All-Ireland final the year after which was his last ever game to referee a county level because he reached the age threshold and Thomas Walsh got similar enough praise for last year's Munster final where he just let everything go but to me now that veered
slightly towards the ridiculous where, you know, something that would be a guaranteed yellow card wasn't even a free that day. So there is a kind of a fine line.
But is that not what genuine hurling people want? According to Ben O'Connor, they just want, you know, they want a free for all.
To a point, but if a three is a three, it's a three. Do you know what I mean? If it walks like a duck, it's a duck. You know what I mean? You're not just letting it go for the sake of it. There are certain boundaries that you try and stay within. Once you veer the other side of that line and anything is reckless or anything like that, then you're blowing it. I don't want to open season.
It's not like two ice hockey boys taking their helmets off and dropping their sticks to the ground and going and poking each other or anything like that. but there's a fair level of physicality that you don't you do not want stamped out again because to me that is what makes hurling so good and makes it probably you know totally unique in that respect really as well
Yeah, certainly a degree of physicality. I personally love that Munster final in 2022 that we mentioned there. So, obviously, Cork tip on Saturday. What's their tip in? The big thing for tip going back 60 years has been their inability to win an All-Ireland and then back that up and go back-to-back. How are they set? Because, obviously, they were massive underdogs going into that final.
That was an unbelievable second-half turnaround for Liam Cahill on his side to get the Liam McCarthy Cup back down there. Are they... Are they set well going into this year or was it a bit of a flash in the pan on a great second half? What's your view on how they're building so far this year and what their prospects are going further?
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Cork face in their upcoming match against Tipperary?
So...
a 5 or 6 point beating for Tipperary at the weekend I think personally would actually be no harm just to recalibrate and really not putting their shoulders to the wheel of course they are but you don't want to be winning in my opinion you don't want to be winning every game and thinking you're further ahead than you actually are I prefer for things to come crashing down a small bit in the league rather than for them to come crashing down in the first or second round of Munster and you're staring into the abyss so I think a reversal at some stage early enough in the league
Wouldn't be actually any harm for temporary.
Yeah, interesting point. But it's nice to have kind of an early season game, kind of catch the eye like that. Saturday night, it's on RT, I think. It'll be a good TV showcase, which I'm looking forward to. Limerick, I want to talk to you about. Obviously, they played Waterford their first game of the season because they didn't play in round one. They lost 121 to 20 points.
Probably the team I was... After maybe how Cork would emerge under Ben O'Connor, the team I was most intrigued to see what they would be like to start the year. Obviously, the shock defeat to Dublin last year, I don't think anyone would have called. And it obviously changed the trajectory of the All-Ireland race.
Everyone was expecting a Cork-Limerick rematch at some stage in Croke Park, which we were denied. Like... I'm not sure if you can really be surprised by any league result, I suppose, in terms of its early season. But losing to Waterford did maybe catch people's eye. Where are Limerick, in your opinion?
How are they bouncing back from last year's disappointment and shock, as I said, against Dublin? And obviously they didn't win the All-Ireland the previous year either. So...
are they in flux are they in transition because looking at the team sheet from the game at the weekend it's a lot of household names that everyone would recognise so it's not as if they went in with this callow team it was actually a very experienced team laden with all-stars and all-Irelands are Limerick where are they now in the pecking order
Yeah, we don't have that much evidence to go on. We have a few Munster League games and they end up winning the Munster League and then we have last Sunday. As Pat Ryan said on the JPA pod, he just said, like, I'll judge them on how they get on this weekend. If they lose again this weekend, then there can kind of be maybe a harsher kind of commentary.
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