Wexford’s Keith Rossiter is the only rookie senior intercounty hurling manager of a Liam MacCarthy Cup team for the 2024 season.
Indeed, Rossiter is the only newcomer donning a bainisteoir’s bib for any side operating in hurling’s top two tiers – MacCarthy and Joe McDonagh Cup.
John Kiely is the longest serving boss among hurling’s elite, and in 2024 the five-time All-Ireland-winning manager will be taking charge of Limerick for an eighth consecutive season.
Of the 11 counties between the Munster and Leinster senior hurling championships this year, five will have outside managers at the helm. Four of those will be in Leinster, where Galway’s Micheál Donoghue remains in charge of Dublin, Kilkenny’s Henry Shefflin continues to manage Galway, Tipperary’s Darren Gleeson is still looking after Antrim while Kilkenny’s Tom Mullally remains Carlow boss.
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Apart from being the sole new manager on the scene, Rossiter is also one of only two home-grown bosses in the Leinster SHC – Kilkenny’s Derek Lyng is the other. Rossiter, who had managed the Wexford under-20s for two seasons, was appointed Model County senior boss in August, succeeding Darragh Egan in the role.
Egan had been in charge for two years but the Tipperary man’s long-term ambitions in Wexford were derailed by a Leinster championship defeat to Westmeath in May, when the Lake County staged an incredible comeback to overturn a 17-point deficit and run out 4-18 to 2-22 winners.
Rossiter only retired from intercounty hurling in January 2015. His backroom team will include Offaly’s David Franks and former Wexford players Damien Fitzhenry and Éanna Martin. Rossiter is the first Wexford native to take charge of the county’s senior hurlers since Liam Dunne’s tenure from 2012-16.
Speaking in September, Wexford great Larry O’Gorman welcomed Rossiter’s appointment.
“Our style of hurling in Wexford, we all know, in the 90s we were driven by passion, fighting spirit and leave everything on the field,” recalled the 1996 All-Ireland winner.
“Then the last number of years I think we’ve skipped over some of that.
“There’s a difference now with a guy who wore the Wexford jersey before, full of passion, full of spirit and he’s going to get that message through to the players that this is what we want, so I think it’ll be a new change of hurling in Wexford under Keith Rossiter.
“We’re delighted that we have our own flesh and blood in. That’s what people wanted to see.”
Ultimately though, what people want to see are results. Shefflin is still waiting to deliver silverware in his first foray as an intercounty manager, and for his third season with Galway the former Kilkenny captain has added Eamon O’Shea to his management ticket.
O’Shea has played a key role in several Tipperary management teams over the years and was a coach on Liam Sheedy’s All-Ireland-winning sides in 2010 and 2019. O’Shea was also the Tipperary manager in 2014 when they lost the decider to Kilkenny – a game in which Shefflin collected his record 10th All-Ireland SHC medal.
Shefflin’s native Kilkenny have unsurprisingly opted for continuity in 2024 after Lyng’s commendable job in filling the biggest shoes in hurling management when replacing Brian Cody for 2023. Lyng guided the Cats to an All-Ireland final appearance in his first season. Michael Rice, Conor Phelan, Peter Barry and Peter O’Donovan are all continuing as selectors.
Donoghue’s second year as Dublin manager gets under way at Parnell Park on Thursday night when they host Westmeath in the Walsh Cup.
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Davy Fitzgerald’s second year in his second stint as Waterford senior hurling manager has already started, his side chalked up a 3-23 to 3-12 victory over Kerry in their Munster Senior Hurling League opener in Tralee on Tuesday night.
Fitzgerald is currently the only outside manager of a Munster Senior Hurling Championship team.
There have been some changes to Kiely’s managerial set-up in Limerick with the addition of Joe O’Connor and John Flavin to the backroom team. O’Connor is returning to the Limerick dressingroom as high performance manager, having worked as a strength and conditioning coach with the Treaty County in 2018.
Paul Kinnerk, Donal O’Grady, Alan Cunningham and Aonghus O’Brien are all remaining on-board for 2024, but performance psychologist Caroline Currid has stepped away.
There has been a significant freshening up of the Clare backroom team by Lohan, who in November had his term extended until the 2025 campaign. For the 2024 season Lohan has added Brendan Bugler and Tommy Corbett to his management team, with James Moran and Seán Treacy leaving the set-up.
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Another notable appointment is that of Lukasz Kirszenstein, the highly regarded strength and conditioning coach who had successful spells working with Tipperary and Galway. Kirszenstein replaces Adrian O’Brien in Clare.
In Tipperary, Cahill will not have Padraic Maher in his backroom team for 2024 after work commitments forced the former Tipp captain to step away. But Mikey Bevans, Declan Laffan and TJ Ryan will all continue in their roles while ex-Kilkenny player David Herity has joined the set-up as a goalkeeping coach.
Liam MacCarthy Cup teams 2024
Leinster
Antrim – Darren Gleeson (5th season)
Carlow – Tom Mullally (4th season)
Galway – Henry Shefflin (3rd season)
Kilkenny – Derek Lyng (2nd season)
Dublin – Micheál Donoghue (2nd season)
Wexford – Keith Rossiter (1st season)
Munster
Limerick – John Kiely (8th season)
Clare – Brian Lohan (5th season)
Waterford – Davy Fitzgerald (2nd season, 2nd term)
Cork – Pat Ryan (2nd season)
Tipperary – Liam Cahill (2nd season)
Joe McDonagh Cup teams 2024
Down – Ronan Sheehan (6th season)
Westmeath – Joe Fortune (3rd season)
Kerry – Stephen Molumphy (3rd season)
Meath – Seoirse Bulfin (2nd season)
Offaly – Johnny Kelly (2nd season)
Laois – Willie Maher (2nd season)
