The Super 8s
FACING the media after Cork dumped Tipperary out of the Munster Football Championship was probably the most enjoyable of experiences for Ronan McCarthy in his short reign as Cork manager.
After some difficult league displays McCarthy finally got to enter and leave a room with a smile on his face as the questions asked were all of a positive nature.
Roll on a couple of weeks and McCarthy cut a lonely figure with a bank of mobile phones and voice recorders stretched out on the table in front of him. McCarthy was getting to see first-hand what Brian Cuthbert and Peader Healy had before him and while McCarthy is far from a beaten man, he will be hoping to avoid the experience again.
As a manager, there is little doubt that you will lose from time to time and being Cork football manager these days means that the good and the bad seem to come in equal measure, however it was the manner of last weekend’s defeat, not the result, that had everyone talking.
“It’s hugely disappointing result and performance” said McCarthy. “We have to put it behind us very quickly because we have a very quick turnaround to the next game in two weeks’ time.”
McCarthy was keen in the lead up to the game to talk about the extensive work his side had put in to cover every eventuality however even he was blown away by Kerry on the day.
“I’ll be honest, that’s one thing I didn’t see coming today, but it’s happened and we have to get on with it.”
McCarthy wasn’t looking to blame the officials as any interventions in the way of Black Cards would have made little difference.
“When you’re beaten by 17 points...I felt the black card calls, a couple that were given which probably weren’t, a couple that weren’t given were. We just have to suck that up, we can’t complain. We were beaten too comprehensively for that to be a factor in what we can talk about.”
McCarthy was clear that Kerry’s tactics on the day were better and his side didn’t react.
“Our big problem was that Kerry didn’t want us to run the ball out and blocked up the centre very well, they worked hard to stop us.
“We hadn’t enough people supporting the ball carrier when we came out and we ended up being turned over: I think it was 19 times in the first half. Some of those were very cheap, losing the ball in contact.
“That was the most disappointing thing for me, that I felt our real strength is our running game and support play, and Kerry obviously were not going to let us come out easy. We lacked support so many times, then we were turned over and they were straight through.
“We got disjointed. The two goals we got early on kept us just in touching distance at half-time.
“I thought (Cork keeper) Mark (White) did OK, he tried to vary it by putting a few out towards the sidelines, that he did OK.
“Credit to Kerry, they were well set up, but when you let a team with that quality seven, eight, nine points up... you’re always vulnerable when you’re chasing the game.
His side may have got beaten well but McCarhty sounded a defiant note in the press room.
“The question is do people want us to fold up our tent and defend out the game to the end? We’re not going to do that under my regime, anyway. Nobody was saying we expected to come out and win by 10 points like we did against Tipperary.
“We felt we’d be competitive, they felt that, and at half-time I felt we could still, possibly, get back into the game, but Kerry got a goal and a couple of points quickly. After that it’s damage limitation because you’re trying to chase the game and that leaves you wide open at the back. I couldn’t disagree with you (on confidence).”
McCarthy will be back at the training ground this week looking to put right all that went wrong and although there is a major job at hand, the Douglas man doesn’t look to be in the mood to throw in the towel anytime soon.
AFTER having seen all four provincial finals it’s clear to see that the Super 8s can’t come quick enough. With the exception of the Connacht decider, where Roscommon at least put it up to Galway for long periods, they were all a damp squib.
You can argue that Laois caused Dublin some problems in the first half of the their clash, but let’s be honest about it that was the worst 35 minutes of football Dublin have put together in a long, long time. When they resumed after the break it was normal service resumed.
Up in Ulster it was another one sided affair. Rory Gallagher was part of a very successful set up under the guidance of Jim Guinness while with Donegal and he will point to the improvement he has brought to his home county Fermanagh, but by god it’s horrible football. It was sickening to watch. So bad in fact I switched over to watch England terrorise poor Panama in the World Cup.
The above games are just more examples on a long list of why the provincial championships are coming to an end. They have to. Listen I have a few Munster medals to my name and damn proud to have. They mean the world to me.
Indeed, ask the likes of Kieran Donaghy or Darran O’Sullivan who picked up another one Saturday evening and they will tell you the same. When the time comes to hang up the boots they will look back on these Munster wins as special times, but as competitive competitions they are losing all credibility.
The simple reality of the situation is that teams at the lower end of the spectrum, as in Division 3 and 4 sides, are trying to compete with the elite forces of Division 1. It’s just too much of a quality gap to have any real meaningful games.
And it’s not serving either team any good is it?
Kerry, Dublin, Donegal and maybe to a lesser extent Galway will arrive into the new championship format probably still wondering where they really are on the form graph?
Galway at least had a few tough battles with Mayo and the aforementioned Roscommon, but the rest breezed through at a canter. The teams they handed out these beatings to must be wondering where they fit in all this?
Managers will come out with the usual sound bites that they were beaten by a better team who are just a class apart from the rest of the province and let’s be honest it’s all getting boring.
The powers that be had the courage and initiative to change up the format with the introduction of the group phase rather than quarter-finals. Let’s hope that they look at the dinosaur the provincials have become and revamp the whole thing.
As for the Munster final itself it finished like many had expected, which was disappointing as the opening quarter was encouraging from a neutrals perspective. Cork just went for it.