Jack O’Connor has rubbished rumours about his departure from the Cork hurling panel, describing it as a prank which turned into a rumour and ‘just caught fire’.
Six months on from his appearance for Cork in last July’s MacCarthy Cup final, O’Connor will return to Croke Park this Sunday with Sarsfields for the AIB All-Ireland club decider.
His strong form has been part of the reason the Glanmire outfit are on the brink of national success though it was feared that the speedy forward may step away from the county squad in 2025.
Rumour swept the county of O’Connor’s apparent plans to go travelling this year though the player himself, who made his Championship debut for Cork back in 2018, set the record straight.
“That was actually a false rumour that was spread by one of the lads,” said O’Connor.
“I won’t be going travelling at all this year. In fairness to Pat (Ryan), he’s been letting us off for the last few weeks so that we can focus on the club. I’m sure I’ll speak to him after the match on Sunday as regards to a plan.”
O’Connor explained how the rumour began.
“One of the work lads put up a story saying it and it just caught fire,” he said.
“I think Rob (Downey) reposted it and it just caught fire. There were people asking my parents and stuff down in the shop, am I going away? But no, I’m not going anywhere.”
It was just another curveball thrown at O’Connor in a remarkable 18 months or so.
From dealing with the devastation of the flooding at the club’s Riverstown grounds in October of 2023, to the All-Ireland run with Cork in 2024 to losing a county final after that to then bouncing back and going on this run to the All-Ireland, it’s been some journey.
“It’s mad,” smiled O’Connor, who maintained that even losing that county final to Imokilly was never going to break their spirit.
“We felt that we didn’t do ourselves justice in that game. It was a few days after it when we got back to training for the Munster championship and we just said we’d have a go and see where it takes us. Here we are now.”
Beating Ballygunner in the Munster final underlined their All-Ireland credentials though there were nervous moments against Slaughtneil before Christmas in Newbridge.
Like O’Connor’s high tackle on a Slaughtneil player which brought a booking.
“They went mad in the stands,” he recalled of the Slaughtneil supporters.
“I thought, ‘Oh God, they might influence the ref here now’. But the linesman saw it thankfully and he said it wasn’t a red to the ref so I got away with a yellow. But it was a heart in the mouth moment.”
Then, right at the death, Slaughtneil’s Mark McGuigan had the ball in his hand just metres from goal but fired over when a goal seemed a certainty. Sarsfields eventually won by a point.
“I missed that whole play because I had just hit off a fella a few seconds before it, fell over and cut my nose so I didn’t see it,” said O’Connor. “I looked up and just heard a big roar…ball over the bar.”
There’ll probably be more drama on Sunday but one thing is sure, failing to win the county title hasn’t placed any sort of asterisk next to Sarsfields’ achievements since.
“It didn’t really bother us if we were county champions or not,” he said. “Regardless of if you were county champions, to go on and be Munster champions, no, it wouldn’t bother me.”
