MORAL OF STORY IS BAD ONE FOR CORK
Forget pride, it should be all about winning for Rebels
Cork were six points up with six minutes left
DAMIEN CAHALANE stood outside the dressing room in Páirc Uí Rinn, his sweat- soaked jersey a testament to the cause. For Cork, last Saturday night was all about pride regained.
After flatlining seven days earlier against Dublin, a beating pulse had been detected, even if the visit of All-Ireland champions Kilkenny had the headline writers ready with a word to go with the ‘C’ on the retro blue and gold jerseys that were worn as a 100-year commemoration: ‘Crisis’.
The full-back admitted it was impossible to avoid hearing about the slings and arrows of Cork’s misfortunes in the build-up, a firestorm of negativity following a third consecutive League defeat, the first time for such a dubious historical footnote since the last days of strike action and civil war.
‘Any time you get commentary like that it hurts,’ said Cahalane bluntly. ‘It was going to go one of two ways — fellas could lie down and say that’s our lot for the year. Or we could come back and try and fight our way back into the League. We did the latter out there.’
If points were awarded for moral victories, then Cork would have their first two on the board for the spring campaign.
The only crib? Being pick-pocketed by the All-Ireland champions, Colin Fennelly and TJ Reid leading the shake-down with late goals.
The general reaction was distinctly upbeat after a passion play adorned by the glorious scoretaking of Seamus Harnedy and Conor Lehane. And it was hard not to be taken in by it.
The cold, harsh facts are less comforting. Cork were six points up with six minutes of normal time l eft — and still l ost. At home.
The previous weekend, the county’s footballers were heralded for restoring pride against Dublin in eerily similar circumstances. Yet the bottom line is that they too coughed up a seven-point lead (the hurlers led by the same in the first half) and also lost. Another ‘moral’ victory.
Really? Has it come to this? Where Cork’s county teams are being patronised for losing?
It’s only September 2013 that Cork’s hurlers were within seconds of Patrick Horgan’s sublime strike of being crowned All-Ireland champions.
It’s July 2014 since Cork were officially the best t eam in Munster, the pitch invasion at Páirc Uí Chaoimh signifying an emotional end of an eight-year drought.
Between 2010 and 2012, the Cork footballers won three successive National League titles, and a first All-Ireland in 20 years. And now are getting a pat on the back for ‘putting it up’ to Dublin, despite a dramatic second half fade-out.
Damien Cahalane’s father Niall was part of the previous Cork football team that won back-toback All-Irelands, a flinty, uncompromising presence with a warrior spirit and never-say-die attitude that was in keeping with the team he played on.
Last Saturday night his son exhibited many of the same qualities.
If Damien certainly wasn’t in self-congratulatory mood after — ‘if you can’t get yourself up for a game against Kilkenny, you’re wasting your time playing hurling’ — he was right not to be.
Study the CCTV footage of Kilkenny’s smash-and-grab raid — as the management no doubt will — and it’s not such a pretty picture.
The video inquest would have centred on the two late goals conceded. When Colin Fennelly first picks up possession, he’s 55 metres from goal. He has four Cork men chasing him and centre-back Christopher Joyce sitting deep waiting for him. And yet, all it took was a simple onetwo with Richie Hogan to see him ghost in and finish deftly.
There are eight Cork players in the picture when he strikes the ball to the net, the last line stepping up as if to play offside even as the Kilkenny attacker runs
through and takes the pass.
Eight players shows a willingness to burst a gut and track back but as a unit, it was woefully naïve.
TJ Reid’s goal minutes later was another case in point. It came after he won a straight up aerial contest with Joyce, plucking Lester Ryan’s booming clearance from the sky as it cropped around the ‘D’.
Once again, a defence with extra numbers back was bamboozled by a one-two and the quick-thinking of substitute John Power who batted the ball back to Reid without taking it to hand.
The Hurler of the Year did the rest from close range.
‘Kilkenny are so experienced,’ added Cahalane. ‘They’re never going to die; they’re never going to panic. They’re always going to keep tipping away. It’s a learning curve for us.’ It’s a steep one as well. In some ways, Sunday suits Cork perfectly.
With a Munster Championship quarter-final against Tipperary already r i nged in t he di ary f or May, Kieran Kingston’s t eam know that a fifth straight defeat won’t change t he f act t hat all t hey need to do is win the relegation play- off to stay i n Division 1A, one of the vagaries of the competition.
Just let there be no more talk of moral victories.