New Cork senior hurling manager John Meyler admits that the opportunity to take charge of the county came sooner than he expected, but he is confident that he’s ready for the challenge.
Meyler served as a selector under out-going Cork manager Kieran Kingston for the past two years and also managed the Cork Under-21s.
He has extensive experience at club level, leading a number of teams to success in both Cork and Kerry, and also served as manager of the Carlow senior hurling team.
Cork GAA chairman Gerard Lane revealed that the reason Meyler was offered the role was to ensure continuity in the county and while the St Finbarr's man admits he thought he’d have to wait longer for the role, he insists that he’s ready now.
Speaking on 2FM’s Game On, the new Cork boss said of his senior ambitions: "I was in charge of the Under-21s last year and felt I would probably have to do another year or two years with the lads who were with me and then possibly if Kieran [Kingston] was moving on....
"But then Kieran left. His two-year term was up this year so it created a vacancy and the county board asked me to take it on. That’s how it happened and we’ll go forward from here."
Meyler revealed that he had to take a step back and consider whether or not to take the role because of the pressure involved, but revealed that the potential within the Cork side convinced him to make the step up.
"You have to give it serious consideration because the pressure on inter-county managers today goes on the individual, on the family, on your work situation and they’re extremely challenging.
"You have to be ready to do that and you have to work it out and plan it out. You really have to sit down and think about it and it’s not just about me, it’s about the team that’s around me.
"It’s about the selectors, the coaches, the medical staff, they’re critical in inter-county today, they’re probably more critical than me because they have massive input. What you’re trying to do is get the best out of everyone.
"I think Ciaran introduced five young players last year. [There’s a] plethora of talent here in Cork at the moment.
"Now it will be extremely difficult to get five new players this year but there’s a lot of young players who were on the Under-21 team last with me, like Sean O’Donoghue, Darren Brown and Robbie O’Flynn, they now need to step up to a higher level.
"So it’s exciting to see that talent and can they make the step up that Mark Coleman, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Shane Kingston have done?
"If we can get two or three of those guys to follow in their footpath, we’ll be doing really well."
Meyler is keenly aware of the expectation within the county and the pressure to live up to teams of the past but he’s confident that there’s enough talent within Cork to keep the county’s supporters happy.
"At the start of 2017 people were looking for performance and then at the end of the year they got an expectation that Cork are now going to delivery," he said.
"There’s always an expectancy in Cork and if you’re successful here, everybody will support you. The colour and the number of Cork supporters in Thurles in the summer and in Croke Park was incredible so there’s huge support here.
"The talent is there, we now need to get a few extra percent out of everybody and build on that. That’s the challenge for management and that’s the challenge for players going forward."
