If Rebels don’t front up against off-colour Mayo, then it’s lights out for Healy
THE Cork footballers are the poor relation to the hurlers at the best of times but, right now, they must feel like a long-lost cousin. The difference between the adulation for the hurlers after their Munster final win and the disregard with which the footballers are held in in the county is startling following a dismal run of form in recent seasons.
After a below-par league campaign, the footballers stumbled over the line against Waterford and Tipperary but players and management would have made a concerted effort to win back the Cork public with a courageous performance against Kerry in the Munster final.
They failed to do so. Everyone left Killarney unhappy but they’re getting another chance at redemption on Saturday. The defiance I expected to see in the face of negativity hasn’t materialised and they must start displaying their rebel instincts.
That hurt can drive a team but you must also have your homework done, you can’t just pull that from out of the blue on a given day but if they go out with the right mentality and have a right crack at it, they’ll give Mayo plenty to think about. There are a lot of ifs and buts though.
Do I think they have individual backs to keep Mayo’s attack quiet? I do. Do I think Aidan Walsh and Co can match them at midfield? I do. Do I think they have quality forwards in Luke Connolly, Paul Kerrigan, Mark Collins and Colm O’Neill? I do.
I watched Cork and Kerry again this week and I saw enough in the first half to see how they could put a big performance together. Are they capable of contending for the All-Ireland? No, not even close. But they could yet take a scalp.
There seems to be something missing though. They haven’t pulled individual aspects together into a team ethos. They have no grasp of consistency and there are serious question marks over the Cork set-up and the dynamic in the dressing-room.
They cannot limp out; it’s not an option because if they don’t front up on Saturday then it’s lights out for Peadar Healy and the current management. They must come out with cannons and guns blazing. If they don’t, this group won’t get another shot at it.
Mayo haven’t set the world on fire and shouldn’t hold any fear for Cork as we haven’t seen a patch of the team that nearly toppled the Dubs in last year’s All-Ireland final. They nearly crashed out at home to Derry and then Clare rattled them so serious question marks hang over them too.
They are very beatable on this year’s form but they have too much experience not to make the last eight. They’ll need their top
men like Diarmuid and Cillian O’Connor to start performing, however, because they can’t keep relying on Andy Moran forever.
Mayo’s defence is as good as what’s out there but the new faces that are coming into their attack wouldn’t strike the fear of God into Cork and they won’t have to cope with a full-forward line with top-class operators like Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue this time around.
Could Cork keep them to 12 or 13 points? They could and they’ll need a low-scoring affair to prevail. Only for Aidan O’Shea, Mayo would have been sent packing by Derry and while Cork have the midfielders to nullify him, if he’s positioned on the edge of the square he could cause havoc and that may be the difference-maker.
This weekend’s other qualifier tie throws up two teams struggling for confidence. Donegal showed great resolve to stay with the Dubs in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final but that resolve was absent against Tyrone in Ulster and they took an awful hiding.
The defensive wall was nowhere to be seen but that problem has been slowly rectified through the back door and with Galway’s confidence on the floor after their shock defeat to Roscommon, and a shaky defence, I’m expecting a Donegal win.
As for last Sunday’s Leinster final, the only chink of light for teams to grab onto from Dublin’s win is what they conceded.
It was a shoot-out with neither team setting up defensively but it’s ominous that the Dubs are maintaining their ruthlessness with big names still to return.