Patrick Horgan Not Letting Old Cork Loyalties Cloud His Judgement In New Role

While he is no longer part of the inter-county scene, Cork legend Patrick Horgan has remained very much at the centre of the hurling discourse despite stepping away from the panel at the end of last season.

The Glen Rovers man has been central to RTÉ's coverage of the sport in recent months, appearing on both live match coverage and The Sunday Game.

He has taken to it like a duck to water. As someone who was playing in an All-Ireland final just a few months prior, Horgan has quite an insight into the modern inter-county game. He also seems like a natural in front of the camera.

As it turns out, this unfamiliar role has also given him a new view on the sport as a whole.

READ ALSO: Two Irish Sports Prodigies Among Those Starting Leaving Cert Exams Today

READ ALSO: Five Names In The Running To Be Appointed As Next Kilkenny Hurling Manager

Speaking in his role as Centra’s leading Sharpshooter ambassador, Patrick Horgan summed up how being a pundit has forced him to look at hurling through a different lens.

You just have to watch it. You can watch it like 'that was a great score' or 'I hope we win the next one'. It's looking for patterns of play, how a team is gaining momentum or how they're winning games.

There's a lot more to it than watching it as you see it. There are things going on that teams are tying to do. Trying to find that is an interesting way of looking at hurling.

When I was playing with Cork, you know what you're trying to work on yourself as a team. Outside of that I wouldn't exactly be looking at other teams too much, outside of our own analysis within the team that we would be doing...

I wouldn't have watched games before, I wouldn't have watched hurling. Now I'm looking forward to watching it.

Saturday I'm looking forward to the Leinster final and Sunday obviously I'll be glued to Cork and Limerick.

Of course, the position does not come without its challenges.

Having every word you utter on live television dissected by the public is a daunting prospect, while his relationship with many current players could have also been on his mind when it comes to making certain types of comments.

However, Horgan admits that he has no issue giving an honest opinion despite his friendships within the current Cork setup.

It would be easy if you saw something that didn't work out on a day, that's not saying they're bad players or bad people. If something didn't work on a day, that's easy to say.

The players themselves are going to see it Tuesday night in their analysis. They're more critical on themselves than anybody could ever be of them and how they play.

It's trying to show the good things while at the same time showing the things they could have or wanted to do better.

That's the way I look at it. It wouldn't be hard at all to say what I see basically.

Cork's form in 2026 has been such that criticism has been rare in any case. That has not necessarily been the situation for every county, with Kilkenny a prime example.

Patrick Horgan was one of the first high profile pundits to suggest that The Cats could be in trouble when it came to getting out of Leinster, a prediction that ultimately came to fruition.

Derek Lyng would step aside as manager earlier this week, with some intriguing names likely to be in the frame to replace him. From Horgan's point of view, he is taking little satisfaction from the struggles of his old rivals.

It's not good, because I love watching Kilkenny, their style, and love of the game. It's just unfortunate that they're out so early...

To be fair to Derek Lyng, he done the absolute best he could.

There was players injured for a lot of it and more fellas went travelling. From the start of the year they were under pressure.

They were in a lot of tight games in Leinster. If you look back over their season, a point here or there probably caught them. They drew against Offaly and if they won that game they were through.

At the same time, you could see early on that they weren't scoring as much as they'd like to score compared to other teams around the country. That was always going to come back and bite them somewhere along the season.

The two provincial finals will be the main focus in GAA circles this weekend, but there has also been an unusual addition to the schedule for many supporters in recent days.

Galway footballer Seán Fitzgerald stepped away from the panel last month in order to take part in the new series of Love Island, already making a big impression on the ITV reality show.

Patrick Horgan has been among those tuning in, although he was nervous that Fitzy's time in the villa may have been cut short this week.

I'm watching it there. He was lucky last night he wasn't back playing championship next week! There was a bit of a surprise.

He got an opportunity to go and he done the right thing obviously.

It's great, we will be stuck to it for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully he can hang on for as long as possible.

It will be an intriguing addition to what is already looking like a very busy next couple of months in the GAA.

From Patrick Horgan's point of view, he will be hoping that watching the Galway man in the villa will not be the most enjoyable part of his summer with Cork having some massive games on the horizon.

*****

Centra and Patrick Horgan are calling on all children aged 8–12 to show their accuracy and skill by collecting a Sharpshooter target sticker in participating Centra stores, placing it on their local club’s ball wall, and uploading their content to social media tagging @CentraIRL and their local GAA club.

Winners will receive a €1,000 prize for their local GAA club plus the opportunity for their team to play at the 2026 Hurling for Cancer Research Charity Match taking place this August.

To find out more and view the full competition Terms and Conditions, visit here.