Carbery Rangers manager Robbie Ahern reckons football’s new playing rules arrived 10 years too late for former Cork attacker John O’Rourke.

The 34-year-old, who retired from inter-county football two years ago, was in sensational form for Carbery as they defeated west Cork rivals by O’Donovan Rossa 1-21 to 2-9 in the Rebel County’s senior ‘A’ football championship second round on Saturday night.

The result marked Carbery’s first group-stage championship win in four years, winning relegation playoffs to retain their senior status in the meantime, and speaking to EchoLive.ie after the game, their supremo Ahern singled out the performance of their veteran playmaker O’Rourke.

“It's a pity for Johnno that the new rules didn't come in around ten years ago, because, look, he has absolutely everything,” he said.

“He’s the leader, he’s the fulcrum for the team, everyone else can feed off him and he was outstanding outside there today.

“It was really enjoyable to watch him and it was great to see it, to be honest. Scoring, setting up – I think he definitely set up the first two, if not three, scores for us – and he was just creating, creating, creating, but also, he had turnovers, he was winning breaks, he was doing everything.”

On the team’s display itself, Ahern added: “We know we're a good team and we know we should be doing better. Look, it is nice to get it, there's no doubt about it. We knew if we came up with a performance that we should be able to win and we did that comfortably, which is very good.”

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