Board will shoulder majority of blame
Noel Horgan reflects on what has been a humbling couple of days for the Rebels’ proud hurling tradition
IT was my first time in Croke Park, so, regardless of the outcome, the memory was always going to be a bit special.
But for all Corkonians in the attendance, even those old enough to remember the glory days of the forties and early fifties when the maestro Christy Ring was in his prime, the All-Ireland final victory over Kilkenny in 1966 provided a unique feeling of satisfaction and pride which remains undimmed to this day.
It brought an end to a famine stretching back to 1954, and nobody would have imagined that the Rebel County would ever be forced to endure such a lengthy spell in the hurling wilderness again.
Now, however, Cork haven’t reached the summit since 2005, and it’s most unlikely the gap is going to be bridged anytime soon, with last weekend’s defeat by Wexford confirming they are further down the pecking-order than they have ever been in the past.
To put a finger on the reason for Cork’s current plight is simple enough. With a few exceptions, the players at the disposal of the new Cork management, headed by Kieran Kingston, haven’t got what it takes to measure up in the top flight, as has been glaringly underlined over the past few seasons.
True, Cork contested an All-Ireland final just three short years ago, and were just seconds away from delivering the big prize against Clare, who needed a last-gasp point to earn a replay which they won.
Cork collected a Munster title the following year, and, despite the heavy defeat inflicted by Tipperary in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final, it was felt they were numbered among five or six teams in with a realistic chance of going all the way in 2015.
Developments since then have served to dispel the notion that the humiliation suffered at Tipp’s hands two years ago was nothing other than an aberration. Beaten by Waterford in the league final and in the Munster championship last season, Cork were later flattered to finish 12 points adrift of Galway in an All-Ireland quarter final, prompting Jimmy Barry-Murphy to vacate the hot-seat with a year still to run in his tenure.
He obviously felt he had gone as far as he could go with this group of players and it has to be accepted at this stage that he had overachieved with the team during his four-year stint at the helm.
JBM wouldn’t have called it a day if he believed Cork had a chance of garnering championship silverware this year, but equally Kieran Kingston wouldn’t
have taken on the job if he felt the future was entirely without hope.
Kingston will be fully aware now, however, that Cork hurling is in a very dark place, and selector Pat Ryan summed up the mood of the new management in the aftermath of the defeat by Wexford when remarking that there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
Cork’s decline shouldn’t come as any big surprise, of course, given the county’s lack of under-age success in recent times. Not since 2001 has an All-Ireland minor title been brought to Leeside, while one has to go back as far as 1998 to discover the last time a Cork team went all the way at Under 21 level.
The picture is just as bleak on the club front, with Cork’s standard-bearers finishing among the also-rans in the race for All-Ireland glory since Newtownshandrum brought home the bacon in 2004.
Cork have failed miserably to make an impact in their last two Under 21 campaigns, as they were completely out-gunned by Waterford in 2015 and by Limerick a few weeks ago, so there appears to be a dearth of quality material coming through on that evidence.
There is going to be no quick-fix for Cork’s problems, but it’s imperative that all the stake-holders put a shoulder to the wheel in an effort to ensure everything is done to enable the county to reclaim its place among hurling’s elite as soon as possible.
The County Board will, no doubt, be a target for a lot of criticism from the Rebel public, having overseen the slide that has left the county facing what’s going to be a long road back to respectability.
To what extent the blame should be laid at the board’s doorstep is a moot point, but what cannot be disputed is that Cork would be waiting even longer for an All-Ireland at this stage, but for the first of the three player strikes in 2002.
That provided the platform upon which the All-Ireland triumphs of 2004 and 2005 were built, yet, needless to say, what those players achieved wasn’t fully appreciated by officialdom and others in Cork GAA circles, and probably still isn’t to this day.
One thing for sure, Kieran Kingston would give anything if he had the likes of Brian Corcoran, the O’Connor twins, Sean Og O’hAilpin, John Gardiner, Joe Deane, Diarmuid O’Sullivan and Ronan Curran operating at the peak of their powers and available for selection next year.
The County Board will be a target for a lot of criticism from the Rebel public having overseen the slide