Have the Rebels made Jon Snows of us all?

Damian Stack looks at some of the stories making backpage news over the past seven days

“Good evening. I know nothing. We know nothing. We, the pundits, the experts, know nothing. We simply didn’t spot it.”

ON the day after the British General Election that, above, is how Jon Snow of Channel 4 News began his evening broadcast. In the aftermath of a political earthquake it’s easy to see where Snow was coming from.

Very few pundits – bar one or two exceptions – saw it coming. Theresa May initially looked unassailable and Jeremy Corbyn quite frankly hopeless and it was then that narratives became frozen in place.

Not even the evidence of a campaign where May stumbled badly and Corbyn emerged as a real leader, could sway people from their original assessments.

When the vote was held Corbyn surged and May floundered, her majority and her authority collapsing overnight, leaving so many caught flat-footed.

Presented with these facts, and channelling his name sake from Game of Thrones, Snow fessed up. He knew nothing. Watching some of the action from the championship last weekend we wondered whether we ought to do the same.

Tyrone beating Donegal in and of itself wasn’t a major shock. The manner of it, however, was. Based on the Red Hands’ performances in the latter stages of the National League there was an increasing level of scepticism about their chances.

You’d think we’d learn never to read too much into league form – just as you’d think we’d learn not to read too much into the early poll ratings during an election – but that’s the trap we fell into.

Watching Kerry brush past Tyrone easily in Fitzgerald Stadium the impression given was not of a team on the march but of one in reverse. Mickey Harte’s men looked utterly lacking in a cutting edge.

Less than three months later, against Donegal last weekend in an Ulster championship semi-final, Tyrone racked up 1-21 and had twelve different scorers. So much for the received wisdom.

The same could be said about assessments of Cork hurling given in the last twelve months. After last year’s championship, which ended with defeat to Wexford in the qualifiers, the Rebels seemed to be in depths of despair with no obvious path to competitiveness in the short term.

Kieran Kingston looked set to preside over a period of studied decline or at least an interregnum while the county waited for underage success to come on stream. This year was supposed to be about threading water and little else.

Cork didn’t have the underage success – the Rebels haven’t won a Munster championship at minor or Under 21levelinthe current decade – to challenge this year... or so we thought. One should never underestimate the ability of Cork to pull something out of the bag.

Even at this early stage of the season Kingston must be in the running for manager of the year plaudits. The team he’s assembled, both front of house and back-room, has proven extraordinarily effective.

It’s easy to see Diarmuid O’Sullivan’s influence all over the Cork defence. Take Damien Cahalane as an example. Never has he looked more at home in the blood red of Cork than he has during this year’s championship.

Cahalane has made the number three shirt his own and, after seeing off Seamus Callinan in the quarter-final, the St Finbarrs man gave Maurice Shanahan a real run for his money on Sunday. The block he effected early doors spoke to Cork’s intent.

Kingston’s men weren’t going to be pushed around. Indeed they set out to stamp their authority upon Waterford much as they had on Tipperary. From start to finish Cork were the superior force.

There were times, particularly in the lead up to the half-time break, when it appeared that wouldn’t be enough. Chances presented and not availed of had the potential to be hugely costly as both sides went in level at the break.

Cork didn’t blink then and they didn’t blink either after Shanahan’s goal later in the second half, a goal which arguably shouldn’t even have stood. Cork now have the composure required of the very best.

They’ve now got a first Munster final in three years to look forward to. Can they beat Clare? Certainly they can and an intriguing contest it looks set to be. A rematch of the 2013 final. A clash between the underage blue-bloods and the more prosaically assembled Rebels.

Another set of assumptions stand in the cross-hairs and if we’ve learned anything in the last couple of weeks it’s that one shouldn’t always presume to assume. As Jon Snow might ask: what do we know?

PS: We’ve noticed quite a bit of commentary referring to Sunday’s game as a “classic”. It’s an example of what can best be termed hurling hyperbole, a process by which games of the ancient art are elevated to a level they scarcely belong.

Last weekend’s game was no classic. It was a good game, an entertaining game, but not a great game. The game of hurling would be better served if we all kept a little bit of perspective. If every game is a classic then no game is a classic.