Throw CAUTION to the WIND
Former Rebels star O’Connell says Cork need to back their talented youth to end their drought
THEY may have left Ennis emptyhanded last Sunday, but Cork’s comfort was to be found in a team-sheet full of youthful promise.
As their hurling title famine endures — it is 19 years since their last Liam MacCarthy Cup success which is the longest by a growing distance in their history — what sustains is the potent sense of a Rebel rising.
That is primarily rooted by their awakening as an underage force, winning three out of the four last Under-20 All-Irelands having gone 22 years prior to that without a national title in the grade.
Eight of the team started against Clare last Sunday came from those under-20 teams, with three more sprung from the bench.
The last time Cork built a team off an All-Ireland under-21-winning base, their boys turned into men almost overnight.
When Cork won the 1999 All-Ireland final, 10 of their starting team had won the back-to-back under21 championships in the previous two years.
So now they wait for history to gloriously repeat itself…
However, it is unlikely to be that simple.
Already, this production line is moving at a much slower rate.
While over the past three years, 11 players from the 2020, ’21 and last year’s winning teams have made their Championship bow, only a handful — Ciaran Joyce,
“At least back then, you had that U21 grade to find out”
Shane Barrett, Alan Connolly, Tommy O’Connell and Brian Roche — have had an impact.
Whittle down that further and, thus far, only Joyce has emerged as a generational talent that will lead for a decade, while those under-21s back in the 1990s offered up names that still echo through the county’s modern history in the likes of Donal Óg Cusack, Diarmuid ‘The Rock’ O’Sullivan, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Joe Deane.
For all kinds of reasons, Cork expectations need to be tempered rather than teased suggests Mickey O’Connell, one of those under-21 winners who made the step up to be a champion in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
‘I would say the one thing that is different between our time and the current crop is the year difference in the grade,’ explains the Midleton man.
‘I think it should go back to under-18 at minor and under-21.
‘It can be a bridge too far, some of these lads won All-Irelands when they were 18, going on 19. ‘Okay, there were a few of us who came straight from minor, but if you look at our minor team that won the AllIreland in 1995, you had Joe Deane, Timmy McCarthy, Donal Óg, Seán Óg and myself, we all played under-14 for Cork.
‘It meant that some of us were just 19 going into the under-21s when we won 1997 and ’98 but then you had the likes of Seán Óg who was a fully grown man when he was 18, whereas I think with the under-20’s, it is still just too big a jump.
‘I have always maintained that just because you were a good minor, you might not necessarily make it at senior level but at least back then, you had that under-21 grade to find out.
‘I understand the reason why they changed it, particularly because of the clash with the Leaving Cert for under-18s but in terms of developing players, I genuinely think the sooner it goes back to an under-18s at minor and under-21, it will be better for everybody,’ argues O’Connell.
That is a debate for another day, although one that is certain to happen but it could be argued that the slower rate of transitioning those under-21 winners to senior has taken into account the year that has been lost in terms of developmental work.
The other difference, O’Connell argues, is that despite the high numbers that made the jump so quickly back in the late ’90s, they came into a team where there was a well-established leadership group in the likes of Feargal Ryan, Feargal McCormack and, of course, Brian Corcoran.
The same can be said now, but the ticking clock for Cork’s leaders has now become so loud, it is impossible to ignore.
‘I do think Pat Ryan has to bring a lot of those under-20s through but it is a huge, huge step up because you have Hoggy (Pat Horgan) coming towards the end of his career, and the same could be said of Conor Lehane and Séamus Harnedy, so he will need to integrate as many as these young players while those established players are still there.’
That could make for a short
window, given that Horgan (35), Harnedy (33) and Lehane (31) are approaching their end game but Cork’s sense of itself as a hurling stronghold will demand that Ryan, who guided the under-21s to 2020/21 wins, will be expected to lead them back to the very top.
‘That is where patience will be needed,’ says O’Connell
‘It does not happen like that. We all know that along the way, you have to have a bit of luck and I just see at this time that the more experienced players are really at the latter end of their careers, whereas when we came on the scene, you had Brian Corcoran, Feargal Ryan and, Fergal McCormack in their pomp and we were so used of playing with each other because we all effectively, it was very easy for us to integrate with them.
‘Right now, I don’t think that Pat can really just throw all the under-20 team on and hope for the best. It doesn’t work that way.’
Instead of surfing on the back of a golden generation as in 1999, Ryan’s challenge will be to get the maximum out of those who he mainly nurtured as under-20s.
There is more to come from that grade, in the likes of Ben Cunningham, son of goalkeeping legend Ger, Conor O’Callaghan and Willie Buckley but it will take time.
The loss of Ben O’Connor to rugby is a profound one as, no less than Seán Óg a quarter of century ago, he was physically primed to seamlessly make the step-up to senior level.
Perhaps, the real opportunity is getting more out of the exceptional Joyce, who may already be the best centre-back in the country.
Within the county, he is seen as perhaps the best talent since Brian Corcoran, and just like the Erin’s Own legend, they may be able to get a different tune out of him.
‘The challenges for Cork are from eight up.
‘We are going to have to throw caution to the wind at some stage and I know this sounds like a bold idea but while Ciaran Joyce is a fabulous centre-back, he played all his underage hurling as a forward.
‘He is a great man to catch a ball, he is big, strong and athletic.
‘There is also talk in Cork of trying either Eoin or Robert Downey up there because if you look at Limerick when they are under pressure, they will hit the ball route one into the square because they know that Gillane is going to win 70/80% of them and if he doesn’t, Flanagan will win them.
‘We need a target man; Hoggy has been our target man for years and years but he is pushing on now and we can’t expect him to be going to the well all the time.
‘I would like to see us try a couple of things like that because I
“The holy grail could be in touching distance”
am not too concerned about the league and it should be all about knowing what your best 15 is come Championship.
‘We should just throw caution to the wind and try a few fellows in different positions and see how it goes.’
But when it comes to the question of where they are going, in Cork there can ever only be one answer.
‘Look, we all know it has been a while. We have had our chances in the past, that All-Ireland semifinal against Limerick in 2018 and you can go back to that replay against Clare in ‘13.
‘You can even go back to last year and the differences are a point or two. That’s all it is; a point in a game can see you knocked out.
‘If you look at these lads coming off those under-20 teams, they were a bit like us in that some of them have not lost a game since under-14.
‘They destroyed all the teams in front of them right up through minor and under-20s.
‘They were so used to winning and then all of a sudden comes the chink in the armour, you go up to the big boys league and you start losing tight games and that can be a bit of blow to belief.
‘But the one thing that we have on our side is youth.
‘Going forward, it looks very good for Cork because Limerick aren’t going to go on forever and Kilkenny are still in transition.
‘A bit of luck for Cork and those one-point games that have been going against us can go our way.
‘I will tell one thing, if they can get out of Munster and get into Croke Park, the holy grail could be in touching distance.’