Hope that Rebels rise
If Cork having been playing possum it must be the greatest acting job since De Niro’s display in Raging Bull
many thought had Cork where they wanted them, again. Who couldn’t be happy for Tipperary last year and be impressed by what they achieved? Well Cork couldn’t.
Tipp are threatening our spot as number two and that in itself should be enough to raise some fire and brimstone from a Rebel, but unfortunately yet again it wasn’t. Another narrow win and here we are. Two sides that have showed little in the championship yet go head to head on a big cycling weekend in Kerry. What is not to look forward to?
Well here is what there is to look forward to. Cork may well lose this weekend and in some quarters the spread between the sides is predicted to be quite wide.
Cork are underdogs. For the first time in history not even Kerry people have the right to play this one down.
If Cork have been playing possum looking to trap Kerry in some sort of pre-planned waiting-in-the-long-grass ruse it must be the greatest acting job since Robert De Niro’s stellar display in the 1981 hit Raging Bull.
Cork are so far off the mark right now it is gone past funny and into the ridiculous, but if that were the end of this story then we might as well all stay at home and let the Kingdom rule for another year.
Cork have been poor, we all know that. Even Cork know that, but Cork will bring something to Killarney next Sunday that only Cork can bring to Killarney on a sunny summer Sunday.
They will bring that innate desire to put one over on their nearest neighbours and hopefully if the management can do their job then the players will also bring a real touch of belief.
Like in Kerry, county jerseys aren’t given out to everyone in the audience. It is an honour to get a Cork jersey and only the best get to keep them.
These Cork’s players are good, some of them are even as good as what’s out there, but collectively they are off the mark right now.
That is not because of a lack of talent, effort or desire – it is a lack of belief. Cork players and the management team haven’t got a break in years. If Kerry’s Fionn Fitzgerald hadn’t broke Cork hearts two years ago with what Cork people call a fluke and Kerry people call genius, then who knows where this Cork team would be now?
Well unfortunately he did land that fluke and Cork are where they are, but this Sunday offers Cork players another shot. A chance at belated redemption. And I for one think they have a chance here.
It is understating the situation in the extreme to say that Cork are coming into this one under the radar as not even NASA could develop a radar that can go that low, but if players like Colm O’Neill, Mark Collins, Paul Kerrigan and James Loughrey can step up and do what we know they can then this Sunday could be one of the great Sundays in Cork footballing history.
Prediction: Let’s go with something crazy then. Donncha O’Connor to come off the bench and land a late monster to put Fitzgerald’s heart-breaker of two years ago finally to bed and resurrect one of the power houses of Irish football after its period of enforced slumber.