O’Mahony says Cork have learned from ‘dark days’

THE dynamic has changed a little. It’s not too long ago since Cork hurling manager John Meyler and his selector Donal O’Mahony would meet to discuss John’s son David at parent-teacher meetings.

In fact, the pair go back even further than that. Meyler was Cork minor manager when O’Mahony (right) was part of the squad in the early 1990s, while later they’d clash again when O’Mahony played Fitzgibbon Cup for UCC against a Meyler-managed CIT. A lot of water under the bridge so, but these days, their conversation doesn’t go far beyond Cork hurling.

So far it’s all gone to plan. When they came together to discuss a plan for the year, management put an emphasis on building a resilience into the squad. “We concentrated on a few things, one was character,” O’Mahony reveals.

“We wanted to build the character of the team. We felt it was difficult year ahead and we wanted strong characters in the squad to deal with those situations and that’s what transpired. Eight points down in a Munster final and came back and won it. Nine points ahead against Tipp, they drew us in but we still pulled a result out of it.

“The character of the team has been very impressive and there have been a lot of curve balls thrown at us and we have gotten to an All-Ireland semi-final.”

The resurgence against Clare that helped them retain their provincial title has sent confidence coursing through the squad.

“John keeps saying to me about (putting) the first half against Tipperary (together with) the second half against Clare. But I say to John it is easier said than done, but it was a great learning curve to have that calmness and calculated decision-making on and off the field (against Clare).

“The environment we create in training is to have problem-solvers, we don’t over-coach them.”

Cork’s form is particularly satisfying for those who were part of the infamous experiment with a sweeper against Tipperary in 2016.

“I was talking there about calmness and composure at half-time in the Clare game in the Munster final.

“I remember being under the stand at half-time in that (Tipp) game and we were 10 points down and under serious pressure. So you’ve to learn from it, that was a bad day at the office,” he says.

“It was nobody’s fault. We went up with a plan, we tried our best, it didn’t work out but we did learn from it both as players and as a management.

“Hopefully, we’ve applied those learnings and that’s the curve you’re on, if you don’t apply what you’ve learned you’re not going forwards.

“Sometimes you’ve to experience those dark days before you get back to the good days again and we had a few dark days. Credit to Kieran Kingston and Pat Hartnett and Pat Ryan and those lads, the difficult job was to turn the needle the other way the way they did. There was great credit due to Kieran and Pat Hartnett and Diarmuid O’Sullivan.”

That feels like a long time ago for Cork. Now Limerick stand between the Rebels and a first All-Ireland final appearance since 2013.

“With so many games this year every team is going to have peaks and troughs; they had one trough and that was against Clare and you could put that down to a third game in a row. I don’t think any team won their third game in a row.

“They underperformed, they know that themselves, it was above in Ennis.

“But if you take that game out of it, look at the results in the league against Galway and Tipperary and their championship games they have won and how they have won, they have been really, really good.”