THE RIGHT DIRECTION
McCarthy has plans for Cork but knows that success is not a given
He knows his team need to develop a winning habit He may have to lean on youth for the moment
THE question sorely missed the point. You ask Ronan McCarthy how hard it has been for the past couple of years as a supporter watching Cork drop down the rankings from being a top-tier footballing county to one that has been swallowed up by the pack.
Thing is, though, in 10 years of active service, seven as a player and three as a coach, he has known only hard times.
One National League, two Munster Championships — the memory of his first in 1999 sugared by keeping Maurice Fitzgerald scoreless — is all he has bled from time well served
Which might explain that when silverware, no matter how modest, presents itself as it will in this evening’s McGrath Cup final in Mallow, he will not be turning his nose up at it.
‘I certainly would put a value on it. As long as I am manager we will be involved in it every year.
‘Granted it is one of the minor competitions but I won a couple of McGrath Cup medals in my own time and I value them,’ he explains.
However, that shouldn’t be taken as a measure of his ambition.
Success tonight is less about silverware and more about developing a winning habit with a group that have taken too many knocks for their own good.
In some ways, it could be argued that their results — they have failed to reach the All-Ireland quarterfinals for the past three years — overegg how far they have slipped.
One-point defeats to Mayo in 2014 and last year, and a freakish Fionn Fitzgerald equaliser in the 2015 Munster final, are reminders that on good days, they can still dance with the best.
‘We have not been very successful over the past two years but there is no point dwelling on that and we just have to look to the future which is what we are doing.
‘What I would say is that we have been close a number of times, and it is amazing how little there is between a one-point defeat and a one-point victory but yet what a huge difference it makes. We are where we are but I would still be optimistic about going forward regarding the chances we have.’
But there will have to be change if the core of the group he has inherited from Peadar Healy’s underwhelming two-year reign is to prove that they are capable of doing better. That change has already been evident; some of it by design, some not. Alan O’Connor, Ken O’Halloran and Michael Shields have all retired, while Eoin Cadogan has declared for the hurlers. Others have been cut, most notably Tom Clancy (Clonakilty), Dónal Óg Hodnett and Colm O’Driscoll — the latter featuring in three of Cork’s four Championship games last summer. ‘Obviously we made judgment calls and there were some players we did not invite back for various reasons, some who had not played a lot over the previous couple of years who were there but had not made the breakthrough and we felt had no more to offer. ‘Now that’s a judgment call as a management and you live and die by that. Others who we had invited back into the panel decided to leave off their own back. All I want is that players are clear with us and there is no messing around and to be fair they didn’t delay and they didn’t mess us around. You just have to accept it and drive on.’ It is unlikely to be a straightforward drive. There are some serious holes to be plugged, particularly in terms of beefing up their defensive spine but they have talent coming through.
Not just in Sean Powter, who sparkled so brightly in his rookie season that he was shortlisted for young player of the year and earned an International Rules call up, but players such as Eoin Lavers, Michael McSweeney, Kevin Flahive and Stephen Sherlock have been given their head in pre-season.
Its early days, but McCarthy is likely to lean on youth, and the presence of the county’s successful former Under 21 manager Sean Hayes, along with Ciaran O’Sullivan and Eamon Ryan, signposts that intention.
He may be forced down that road anyhow.
Cork may be the early favourites for promotion back to Division 1 after a two-year absence but should Nemo Rangers reach the All-Ireland club final McCarthy will have to make do without pivotal figures like Paul Kerrigan, Stephen Cronin and Luke Connolly.
And road trips to Down, Meath and Roscommon — the three most likely others with upward mobility on their minds — add to that challenge. He won’t be lured into setting public targets, but then he does not see the worth.
Still, there are some which will be set for him and the bottom line this summer is that, in the event of the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh staging Munster’s old passion play for the first time, his team will have to be at the very least competitive.
After that, there will be little super about the Super 8s in the deep south if that three-year quarter-final exclusion zone is increased to a fourth.
‘There are a lot of people saying that we should be one of the teams in the Super 8s, but just because you say it does not mean it is going to happen,’ warns McCarthy, who gives the new format a cautious welcome.
‘I am a fan of the principle of regular games for players. I would be open-minded about it, I think we are looking into the unknown but the idea behind it is a positive one.
‘Let’s see how it plays out in reality. Players want to be playing and they want to be playing regularly. That is part of the idea behind it as well as condensing the season for club players so the thinking behind it is positive.’
It would help if the disposition of his own tribe was likewise but his two predecessors, Healy and Brian Cuthbert — McCarthy served as coach under the latter — endured some vile treatment, particularly on social media, from disaffected Cork followers.
That was one of many reasons why he could have turned his back on this chance — another his appointment as principal of Glanmire Community College last year — but he was never for turning.
He will brace himself for the flack when it comes, but his eye is on the prize of making Cork a force to be reckoned with by the time his three-year reign has run its term.
‘What you want to do is hand it onto the next person in a healthy position and if Cork do not win the All-Ireland in the three years that I am there, then at least they will be contenders so that the next person coming in has that chance.
‘To do that, you need to bring good young players through, ensure the age profile of the squad is right, the team is good and is challenging for honours consistently and hopefully winning — but there is no guarantee of that.’