BY KIERAN McCARTHY
JOHN O’Rourke admits the hardest part of retiring from inter-county football is knowing that Cork aren’t where he had hoped they would be.
When the Carbery Rangers man joined the senior panel, first in 2012 as part of the training squad before making his debut in 2013, the Rebels were a Division 1 team and All-Ireland contender.
Since then Cork has struggled to make an impact, and O’Rourke, who was a constant figure throughout his 12 seasons with the county (2013 to 2024), departs the inter-county scene with the Rebels in Division 2 and still trying to position themselves as contenders for the big prizes.
‘In my own head I didn’t want to finish with Cork until we had won something substantial, whether it was a Munster championship or a Division 2 title, but it just wasn’t to be,’ O’Rourke (32) told The Southern Star in his first interview since his Cork retirement was announced.
‘That’s the hardest part, walking away having not achieved that. I wanted to get Cork back into Division 1 and play in the big games – that’s where I started and it was a big goal to get Cork back to that level.
‘In the last few seasons we felt we were good enough to get out of Division 2 but we just weren’t consistent enough to achieve that.’
Don’t miss Thursday’s Southern Star for an exclusive chat with John O’Rourke
