Cork need a performance and they need a result

Roscommon v Cork

OF all of the inter-county teams in Ireland, the Cork footballers seem to receive a harsher rap than most, if not all, others, except maybe Mayo.

When they’re not winning – which is often enough, given Kerry’s presence in Munster – they should be winning; when they are winning – as in Conor Counihan’s tenure, which brought an All-Ireland, three Munsters and three league Division 1 titles – they should be winning more.

Even the achievement of the teams of 1989 and ’90 in winning back-to-back All-Irelands is partly qualified by saying that Meath should have been beaten in the 1988 drawn game, and it’s impossible to mention the 1973 win without adding that the 1974 All-Ireland would surely have been won as well but for what are termed as over-exuberant celebrations.

The above examples, remember, are from when things were good; generally speaking, the curve hasn’t been travelling upwards since the spring of 2014, when Brian Cuthbert’s fresh, new side topped the Division 1, but got caught in the rotors of the Dublin machine in a semi-final turnaround.

It’s easy to forget that Cork went into that year’s Munster final as favourites to beat Kerry, despite only scraping past Tipperary; the reversal that day in the last intercounty football game in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh was never really recovered from, despite a strong response in 2015. Having poured everything into beating Kerry in Killarney, they could only draw and lost the replay before the limp exit against Kildare in the qualifiers.

Since then, the good moments have been heavily outweighed and the only real surprise about Saturday’s loss to Clare was that it wasn’t surprising at all. The game’s best two goal chances fell to the visitors in the first half; had they gone in, then Cork mightn’t have even led at half-time, a small a consolation as P W D +/- L Pts that was.

There was no official attendance figure announced, but apparently the crowd was less than 500. The lack of support for the footballers is nothing new. In 2011, Cork’s first competitive home game as All-Ireland champions was the home league game against Monaghan.

It was their third game of the campaign and came after they had started with a win away to Kerry. It was the highest Cork football had been riding since the glory days under Billy Morgan, yet the crowd in Páirc Uí Chaoimh was 1,375.

With the Cork footballers, it’s something of a chicken-and-egg situation. Would they perform better with a larger loyal support? Or do they need to get results to show that they are worth following? The latter is the view taken by most.

They probably won’t be relegated to Division 3, but even having to say that is indicative of how far the county’s stock has fallen, in such a relatively short space of time. If one were to rank the Munster counties right now, they would be vying with Clare for third spot. It’s a cold, hard reality and one which many are still not comfortable in dealing with.

The return of the Nemo Rangers contingent of Stephen Cronin, Luke Connolly, Paul Kerrigan and Barry O’Driscoll will improve Cork, assuming that they’re not too shell-shocked after the heavy loss to Corofin in the All-Ireland club final in Croke Park on Saturday.

Aidan Walsh would also be an asset – he hasn’t really had a chance to establish a partnership with Ian Maguire yet – but his injury is set to keep him out until May and it’ll be asking a lot of him to slot straight back in for a Munster semi-final clash with Tipperary – assuming they beat Waterford – in Thurles.

That game is already taking on massive status – where once we wondered as to how Cork would do in the inevitable Munster final against Kerry, instead we are left to ruminate on a game against Tipp where they could well be going in as underdogs. It may be the case that it might suit better as the favourites’ tag hasn’t fitted well in recent times, but it’s certainly a sobering situation.

This Sunday, Roscommon, who share top spot with Cavan on nine points, will be keen to get the win to guarantee a place in the final, making Cork’s task all the tougher. Against that, they have won their two away games against Down and Meath, perhaps benefiting from being out of the wider public eye.

What’s worrying about the three home losses is the similarity of the scoring patterns. Against Tipp, they trailed 0-4 to 0-1 before responding well and leading by 0-9 to 0-6 at half-time, but they lost by 3-16 to 1-16, the turnaround including an unanswered 2-5 from Tipp.

In the Cavan match, Cork trailed by 0-9 to 0-5 at half-time, but the visitors had had five points on the trot before the break, Cork again seeming to have established a foothold before that.

Positives are that the leaking of goals has been stemmed, but losing two home games where the opposition scored just 14 points indicates a wider malaise at the other end of the field.

Connolly and Kerrigan should be able to effect an increase on that front, but the cliché about it being a 20-man game nowadays is only a cliché because it’s true and the depth in the Cork panel isn’t near the levels of the counties in the top stratum.

If they were to beat Tipp, there would be a Munster final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh to look forward to and, even with defeat in that, they would be just one game away from the Super 8s, even if getting that far is quite the pipedream right now.

Roscommon, as the reigning Connacht champions and a side who more than likely will be in Division 1 next year, may be exactly the kind of opponent Cork need right now to see if they go toe-to-toe with them.