February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Almost certainly not the board’s first choice, given that both Gerald McCarthy and Jimmy Barry-Murphy passed on the opportunity of returning to the intercounty fray, O’Grady could still be an effective leader for the disgruntled hurlers.
Critically, he has been outside the county coaching system for several years and will thus likely bring a refreshing independence to the job. While John Considine might have been a candidate, he worked with the previous coach, Bertie Og Murphy, and was inadvertently involved in the skirmishing between the players and the board.
Meanwhile, Seanie O’Leary was also regarded as a strong candidate, but it is believed that O’Leary has never seen eye to eye with the controversial county secretary, Frank Murphy. O’Leary should be a selector in O’Grady’s new management tea,m which would be a progressive move given his technical expertise and popularity among the strong east Cork contingent in the panel.
O’Grady, a 49-year-old school principal at the Irish-speaking section of the North Monastery CBS, is unproven at senior intercounty level but was a selector as far back as 1986 when Cork when the All-Ireland title. He coached Youghal to the county intermediate title in 1993 and was also an influential member of the backroom team that guided North Monastery to a series of Harty Cup titles in the early 1980s.
He is currently a hurling analyst for the Irish-speaking television station, TG4, having previously worked for RTE on “The Sunday Game.” O’Grady was also a member of Cork’s winning All-Ireland side in 1984.