One small style change can lead Cork out of the wilderness
CORK coming to town this weekend to play Offaly got me thinking back to my schooldays – 1980 was the year Offaly hurling made the breakthrough with that first Leinster title before going out in the All-Ireland semifinal against Galway.
I went to boarding school in Garbally College in Ballinasloe that September. My parents thought that would knock some sense into this head of mine.
My abiding memory after starting there was that we were all marched out to the school gates to clap the Galway senior hurlers, who were after winning the All-Ireland. I was 12 and a half years of age, Joe Connolly was captain – I’m friendly now with all the Connollys. That was my first experience of boarding school, clapping a Galway team as they returned home victorious.
Because of boarding, I was stuck at college. Wasn’t at the 1981 All-Ireland when Offaly won their first. Or 1982 when footballers beat Kerry and stopped the five-ina-row.
But I did make it to the Centenary All-Ireland in 1984 when Cork and Offaly played. I loved that Offaly team but my biggest hero as a kid growing up was Jimmy Barry-Murphy. He was the skin-headed wonder in 1973. Now there were a lot of other Cork players on that team who were admired but he was the player who captured my imagination.
And the 1984 decider is one where I still remember everything about that day. While we lost, seeing JBM in person left such an impression.
All of those things inspire you. I was 16 at the time. Two years later, we won the minor All-Ireland and Cork won the senior. The tradition at the time was for a reception in the Burlington Hotel the next day for the All-Ireland senior and minor teams. This was a time before selfies but I can vividly remember seeing the players up close – Cork’s All-Ireland winners like Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Tomás Mulcahy, Tony O’Sullivan.
I remember thinking, I want to be back here as a senior player.
I went straight on to the Offaly senior panel then and while we met them a bit in league we never played them in Championship until the All-Ireland semi in 1999. That was Brian Whelahan’s best-ever day for Offaly – of his many great days. It was 0-16 each with a few minutes to go before they won out 0-19 to 0-16. Cork went on to win an All-Ireland against Kilkenny, a messy enough affair in the rain.
When Offaly met Cork again in the 2000 semi-final, if the team wasn’t on its last legs, I certainly was after being there since 1986!
We were 4/1 or 5/1 outsiders. We just had one of those days. Young players like Ger Oakley, Gary Hanniffy and Brendan Murphy had come into the team and made a big difference. That remains the only time the Offaly senior hurlers beat Cork in the Championship. By the end, I had pulled a hamstring, my leg was banjaxed, but it remains one of my favourite days.
The final proved a step too far – we lost to Kilkenny. Perhaps if Brian Cody had lost a second consecutive final as Kilkenny manager, it might have changed the course of history.
I went into the commentary box then and saw Cork change the way hurling was played. Kilkenny had been overpowering teams and Cork came with a different type of play. Their style was about a lot more than running. It was about really hard work, tackling, hooking, discipline, fitness. In the likes of the O’Connor twins Ben and Jerry, Tom Kenny, Seán Óg Ó h-Ailpín, they had not just serious hurlers but savage athletes.
Dónal Óg Cusack changed goalkeeping with the range of puck outs and Joe Deane inside was a wizard.
There was an awful lot about that Cork team to admire. They were very strong, stylish, athletic. And won back to back All-Irelands in 2004 and 2005. But Kilkenny in turn found a way to combat that.
For Cork, two years without a senior title became five, became 10, became what is now 19 years.
We welcome them this afternoon then to O’Connor Park, even if we’ve a lot of injuries right now.
Every year we have this debate about Cork’s style of play. After Clare beat them in the 2013 final, they went through a period of struggling to win ball in the halfforward line. Went and relied on a short, running game rather than developing ball-winners.
As they found out, a team like Limerick can stop that running game. The 2021 All-Ireland final quickly turned into a rout.
They’ve had some very good managers, some great players – Patrick Horgan is one of those that so many would love to see win his All-Ireland.
And the question again is whether it will happen this year.
With the pace and talent of their forward line – and I’m thinking of players like Conor Lehane, Robbie O’Flynn, Jack O’Connor – they want the ball moved fast. More direct. Except Cork often tend to take that extra pass.
When they are running that ball off the shoulder, they can destroy you.
In the heat of Championship though, that sort of gameplan can break down. And they seem to have gone back to that again. What sounds like a bad jaw injury to Mark Coleman is a real blow. When he came on against Kilkenny, he was pulling all the strings.
Darragh Fitzgibbon is another who has missed parts of the season with injuries so he is another key central player. Ciaran Joyce has really bedded down at six. Having a team that is strong up the middle might be a cliché but you do need a solid base.
If they could get their hurling team going, they really are a sleeping giant.
From Christy Ring to Jack Lynch to JBM, Cork have produced such iconic players. So this is a long time in hurling’s wilderness. I feel a slight change of style can lead them out of it.