REVITALISED REBEL
Ex-Rebels boss Morgan relishing a shot at their greatest rivals as the Championship reverts to the knockout format he knows so well
Morgan believes knockout format gives Cork a genuine shot this year
THE way the stars have aligned for Billy Morgan, they have taken the shape of a time travel machine transporting him back to the 1970s. A Cork Taoiseach, Liverpool as champions and the prospect of Kerry coming to town later this year, with the delicious anticipation that if they stumble this time there will be no safety net, gives this the feel of the good old, bad old days.
Even allowing for these being the most surreal and dangerous of times, the way things are shaping this time could feel even sweeter.
As ever, Morgan’s world view is tinted through the red and white of Cork, the green and black of Nemo.
Jack Lynch was an all-conquering sporting and political legend on Leeside, but he is one thing short of his successor Micheal Martin.
‘I was delighted Micheal got elected. He is a sincere man, a lovely man and a Nemo man,’ explains Morgan.
Even his loyalty to Liverpool has its source in Cork, or more to the point, a betrayal of Cork.
It is not every Liverpool supporter who will admit to this, but Morgan started out following their fiercest rivals Manchester United.
He did not switch horses in a shoddy trade for glory but out of principle and instinct.
‘I used to follow Manchester United but when they sacked Frank O’Farrell, a good man and a Cork man, I thought it was unjustified.
‘When he came in, they were up the top of the league at Christmas. I met him once and he told me he had an ageing team and that the only reason they were top of the league was because of Georgie Best. And then Georgie went AWOL a bit, off the rails, and he told me they went downhill then.
‘They brought in Tommy Docherty and he brought them down to the second division.
‘Frank was treated unjustly and I stopped following them. I saw Liverpool in the 1971 Cup final when they lost to Arsenal and I was taken by them. They had this thing about them that reminded me of Nemo – they promoted from within, they had this famous boot room culture and it resonated with me,’ he explains.
It runs deep, too, as a Gaelic Games reporter from the Sun newspaper once found to his cost.
The English tabloid is despised by Liverpool supporters because of its skewed coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 people died in a crowd crush at the club’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
The Sun published an infamous front page headlined The Truth, in which it claimed that Liverpool supporters had rifled the pockets of stricken fans and attacked emergency services, which would in time be exposed as lies.
‘I got a phone call from a reporter from the Sun before the 2007 All-Ireland and I said to him, “nothing personal, but I am a Liverpool supporter and I am not talking to ye. I think he thought I was mad or looking for an excuse not to talk but that was something I felt strongly about. That is not something you would forget.’
He is 75 and is acutely aware time not does travel backwards or even stall, but it does have a habit of repeating itself.
In that there is some comfort for him and for Cork football. This week marked the 30th anniversary of perhaps their most perfect day and certainly their sweetest.
It was a giddy summer anyhow, Ireland was on top of the world or at least in the last eight, and not even Toto Schillaci’s strike the previous evening could kill the buzz as a crowd in excess of 40,000 gathered in Pairc Uí Chaoimh.
Cork might have been All-Ireland champions and favourites but, weakened by injuries and menaced by Kerry’s tradition, no one saw it coming.
Not even Morgan: ‘We had so many injuries. I remember talking to the selectors the day before it because we had so many fellows out and I remember signing off saying “we will just have to see what we have”. ‘I remember going to Jury’s Hotel the following morning and waiting to see who was fit and who wasn’t.’ As it transpired, he had to reshape his team, stand-out wingbacks Tony Davis and Barry Coffey were among those forced to drop out with injuries, while he gambled on moving Shay Fahy to fullforward and giving a rare start to Colm O’Neill.
The latter would score 11 points, Cork would kick 1-7 without reply before half-time, and when it was all over they had slayed Kerry by 14 points – the Kingdom’s heaviest-ever defeat in a Munster final.
It offered up one of the great GAA ‘wag in crowd’ lines as Kerry supporters streamed for the exits in the final quarter, with the instruction of “lock the gates and make the f**kers watch” ringing in their reddened ears.
Morgan has his suspicion as to who came up with that killer line – his late friend John Corcoran, who would go on to become his selector when he returned for a final stint as Cork manager in the mid noughties.
‘Big John, God rest him, used to always tell that story because he was up in the stand watching as the
Kerry supporters were leaving long before the end.
‘Whether it was him or not that said it, I don’t know but it could well have been because he seemed very proud of it,’ laughs Morgan. And it was a time to be proud of Cork football. They would put up the second leg of the double that September but more than anything their domination of Kerry never felt so absolute.
They would win seven Munster championships in nine years, reach five All-Irelands in nine years, winning back-to-back titles for the first time in their history.
‘I would say the 1990 Munster final would be the peak of that time but I would have some regrets.
‘I could point to some refereeing decisions – Tommy Sugrue in 1988 (the Kerry referee awarded a contentious late equalising free to Meath) and the sending off of Anthony Davis against Derry in ’93.
‘I have no doubt if we had the 15 men we would have won, and even with 14 we led for a long time.
‘I won’t lie. After all these years there are still tinges of regret that we did not win more,’ he concedes.
In the main, though, he looks back with pride, and forward with real hope.
That era of Cork dominance in Munster was a game-changer because Morgan spent most of his playing career, despite captaining the Rebels to an All-Ireland success in 1973, playing to the rhythm of a brutally truncated summer.
It was the ruthlessness of Mick
‘THE SHARK CAN COME BACK AND BITE YOU IF IT IS NOT GONE’
O’Dywer’s great Kerry team that gave him his greatest education, but the lessons were hard learned.
‘We trained like dogs and we would go down to Killarney or to the Pairc thinking “we have a great chance. This is our year” and next thing Kerry are six, seven, eight points up. And still, come the next year, I would be convinced that we would catch them, even though we would be mad underdogs.
‘I remember talking to Bomber Liston about this one time years later over a pint, telling him how hard we trained and how convinced we were that we were going to catch them on the hop.
‘He told me “there was no chance of that because we used to train for ye like we never beat ye before in our lives. We were always ready”, he told me.’ And they were.
‘They had this belief. We would go down to Limerick, Tipperary or Clare to play in the first round of the Munster Championship and quite a lot of the time we would struggle to get over them because we did not have this kind of ruthless streak in us.
‘Whereas with Kerry, if they are six goals better than you, they will beat you by six goals. I remember one year they rattled in nine goals against Clare and they never took chances in terms of being complacent.
‘If you were to beat them, then you had to be better than them. They were not going to be caught because they did not train hard enough. I used often feel that with Cork players that some of them were happy to make the Cork team and that the height of their ambition was to get the gear and swan around the town. ‘There was no real ambition there, no real belief that they could beat Kerry and go on to win the All-Ireland,’ recalls Morgan (left).
It was changing that mindset that got Cork to a place where John Corcoran could tell the joke where the laugh would finally be on Kerry. In a way, and this is what fills Morgan with anticipation and hope, this year has the feel of change about it.
Kerry’s foot is pressing as hard as it ever did in the past on Cork’s neck. They are seeking an eighth Munster title in a row, a 10th in 11 years while operating two divisions higher this spring.
But there is evidence of Cork stirring. Last summer they could and possibly should have beaten Kerry, while they showed the audacity to menace Dublin and the composure to outplay Tyrone for a half.
It is hardly a form book in which must trust can be invested, but they were calculated, sober and clinical in their five-game winning streak in Division three prior to the lockdown. Above all, Morgan senses that this generation of Cork players believe.
Their Under 20s All-Ireland success last year had added value in the way they put manners on Kerry, while their U17s added another national title to indicate that they are back in the football production line business.
‘I remember Tony Davis saying to me once that he had never been beaten by any Kerry team at any level, going through minor, U21 and senior and that was something brand new for a Cork footballer at that time, but that shows what happens when you get used to beating a team.
‘The other side to that is that you can get used to losing to the same team as well and you end up accepting it. You just can’t beat winning.
‘I will be quite honest; I think Cork have a glorious opportunity this year. A lot of people are saying that no back door is bad for Cork but I would be looking at this as a marvellous opportunity. One game against Kerry and you beat them, they are gone.
‘They won’t be coming back to beat them in an All-Ireland semifinal or final. And I really think they have a great chance this year provided they can get over that Kerry hump.
‘I am in favour of a knockout championship. There is no back door, no safety net, just go out and do it and if you don’t you are gone.
‘There is nothing like it, you are going out there. You have one chance. If you don’t do it and you don’t perform you are gone. The knockout system favours the underdogs. They might beat a shark once in a while but if the shark is not gone, the chances are that it comes back and bites you.’
He can hardly wait and, yet, he may have to. ‘Given my age and I have my heart problems, I am one of those who would be deemed vulnerable. ‘As regards doing anything or going anywhere, I would be thinking twice about it. We will just have to see what happens.
‘I have been lucky in that I have been cocooning in Kinsale for the past number of months and there are worse places you can be, but I miss the games,’ he admits.
And not just to watch them either. He was part of the Nemo Rangers management team last year, while for the past decade, he has managed UCC, leading them to three Sigerson Cups.
It means that his finger on the pulse of football’s great southern rivalry remains but it also means he is aware that the one big difference with 30 years ago when Kerry were in chaotic transition is that they are now a coming force.
It might seem ironic, given that he is the poster boy for that rivalry, but in a way in his role as UCC manager he has helped Kerry too.
Seven of the Kerry team that played under him in UCC were part of Kerry’s last All-Ireland winning team in 2014, but the college is a place where football comes before colours.
‘It has been great to coach young players from different counties and there is no bias. I love working with someone like Sean O’Shea. It is such a pleasure.
‘He is a tremendous young fella, the same with Paul Geaney a few years ago. They are so easy to work with. You can see their attitude straight away and you know then why these fellas win things.
‘Kerry are the one team who can challenge Dublin because they have the young players coming but I am hoping after meeting them in the Munster Championship this year it will take them another year or two before they are back challenging.’
It may even be written in the stars.