CHOSEN ONE: Ben O'Connor has emerged as the chosen candidate for the Cork U20 hurling job. Pic: INPHO/Ben Whitley

Ben O’Connor has emerged from a field of heavy-hitters as the chosen candidate to become the next Cork U20 hurling manager.

In a particularly busy appointments season for Cork GAA bosses, the handing of this important U20 role to O’Connor means the former forward is essentially being groomed as a future Cork senior manager.

His sideline CV to date shows that his credentials are admittedly more coaching than managing, the two-time All-Star having trained Charleville and Midleton to Cork Premier Intermediate and Premier Senior titles in 2018 and 2021 respectively. This lack of experience in serving as front of house, mind you, clearly wasn’t held against him by those charged with making the appointment.

Former Cork centre-back Ronan Curran, fellow Barr’s clubman Ger O’Regan, Midleton’s Terence McCarthy, and former Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash are said to make up his backroom team.

Current senior manager Pat Ryan stands as evidence plenty of the pathway that exists from U20 to senior sideline, and O’Connor will be well aware this U20 gig doubles up as an audition for the top job down the line.

It was an audition that Ryan himself nailed last summer, winning as he did back-to-back All-Ireland U20 titles in the space of six weeks. And so when the county board executive decided against extending Kieran Kingston’s term two months ago, Ryan was the obvious option to pick up the reigns.

An integral part of Ryan’s brief, probably the number two priority just below returning Liam MacCarthy Leeside, is transitioning his U20 winners to the senior grade.

And the same as there is a queue of All-Ireland U20 winners on Ryan’s doorstep with the potential to make an impact on the senior stage, there’s a conveyor belt of even rawer talent coming behind them that must be carefully crafted and moulded by O’Connor in the years ahead.

In opting for O’Connor, the selection committee are opting against familiarity given the three minor classes feeding into next year’s U20 panel have hurled under three of the other four candidates that were interviewed for the job this day last week. You had Donal Óg Cusack in charge of the 2020 minors, Noel Furlong led the 2021 group to All-Ireland glory, while Paudie Murray oversaw this year’s U17 crop.

No doubt but Furlong and Murray would have stressed in their respective interviews the benefits to be achieved by being let work with their minors a year and two before they reach their final year at U20.

Also interviewed was former Cork senior selector and full-back Diarmuid O’Sullivan, the list of men considered for the post reading as a who’s who of former All-Ireland winning managers and players.

The five-man selection committee comprising Cork County Board chairman Marc Sheehan, secretary Kevin O’Donovan, vice-chairman Pat Horgan, Michael O’Mahony, and Eoin O’Connor met earlier this week to run the rule over the five men, but there was no unanimity on any one candidate and so black smoke billowed over Páirc Uí Chaoimh midweek.

The field was, however, narrowed to three, with O’Connor, Furlong, and Murray still in the mix. O’Connor, it emerged on Friday morning, had got the call.

With Furlong’s 2021 minor class having torpedoed their way to the county’s first All-Ireland title at that grade in 20 years - their average winning margin was 19 points - O’Connor has a bright bunch on his hands.

But as outgoing U20 manager Donal O’Mahony told this newspaper when serving as U20 selector to Pat Ryan last summer, it’s not about being selfish, it is about developing players for senior.

Develop them right, as Ryan, O’Mahony and the rest of that U20 management did, and O’Connor will be given the chance to work with them at the top level at some point in the future.

Our final point is in no way to be held against O’Connor, it’s more an observation concerning those overlooked who had come through the Rebel Óg/minor pathway.

Serving one’s time at development squad level before rising to minor manager does not and should not provide any guarantee of U20 work, but will the passing over of those who enjoyed success while on that pathway disincentivise or make it less attractive for others to get involved in those important U14/U15/U16 age grades?

As we said, just a thought.

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