It’s ELEMENTARY FOR REBELS
Criminology student Conor Lehane insists Cork still have to atone for their slaughter by Tipperary
BEFORE he gets his teeth into the ups and downs of life as a Cork hurler and the prospect of facing Dublin i n this afternoon’s Allianz Hurling League semi-final, Conor Lehane knows the subject matter of his college course in UCC is one to pique plenty of interest.
After completing an arts degree in geography and sociology, he decided to plump for a masters in criminology at UCC, sparking a whole host of conversations about one hit crime show in particular.
If there’s an Irish spin-off, “CSI Midleton” – in honour of his home town – certainly has a slightly different ring to it.
‘Everyone says that to me,’ he admits smiling.
‘Horatio, CSI, Criminal Minds... originally I was for the guards but that didn’t work out. I’m still going for it. After my degree I went to the guidance counsellor, went through what I’d be interested in and criminology came up. It seemed very interesting so I’m glad I did it.’ What sparked his interest? ‘Catching bad guys. I like the law side of it. If you ever need a lawyer in a few years, you know who to come to. I mights have watched one too many TV shows and got an idea in my head. It’s not quite the same as CSI or any of them – it couldn’t be further. But certain parts of it are very interesting.’
When Cork last met Dublin in the group stage of the League at Croke Park, Lehane is right to describe it as ‘a strange game’. The half-time scoreline of Cork 0-21 Dublin 0-8 left analysts and supporters alike wondering if a top-tier county team had ever conceded 21 points before the interval.
For Cork, it was a first return to the venue since the All-Ireland semifinal blow-out against Tipperary – when the gloss was somewhat taken off the achievement of reaching that stage by virtue of a first Munster title since 2006. Lehane copperfastened his reputation as a pacy, free-scoring forward over the course of the summer but he admits it was a serious knock-back to the team.
‘The sheer disappointment,’ is what he remembers most.
‘Walking off the pitch and realising what had happened. We were on a bit of a high from Munster.
‘ It went from an extreme high to extreme low. It was a tough one to take. We didn’t see it coming. What the keeper was doing with the puckouts especially was incredible. In the first half, how accurate he was.
‘The more frustrated we got, the more we tr i ed, the less it happened for us. One of those things where they opened a gap and we couldn’t respond.’
Winning Munster on their Páirc Uí Chaoimh home patch, on an emotional last day before the old stadium was redeveloped, brought its own special memories.
‘ We were s o happy with the Munster. We were never going to disre- spect it because we hadn’t won it in a number of years.
‘That was a huge high. To be honest, growing up I never won anything with Cork. So winning that was huge. I’d never gloss over that. But it [the semi-final] was definitely a dent in the year.’
As Lehane says, he came up through a Cork underage system when the medals happened to dry up. With the county enduring one of its longest ever droughts without a provincial senior title, the stakes against Limerick on Munster final day were high.
‘I remember the crowd beforehand as I walked around the pitch. One side literally was covered in green, the other was all Cork.
‘Towards the end of the game, with maybe two minutes to go, in your head you’re thinking, “We might have this now.” I was telling myself to shut up and keep playing.
‘It was the longest two minutes of my life. Then, when the whistle blew, the celebration. The crowd came in.’
Some came calling for their own special memento of the historic day. ‘There was people coming in and digging little squares out of the pitch.
‘We were training after it and there was squares gone on the pitch because it was the last Munster final to be played there.
‘You’d be running along and next minute you’d see all these uneven squares all over the pitch.
‘That just tells you how much it meant to people.
‘Definitely it was a huge relief and a huge weight off the shoulders. It’s brilliant to have, it’s unreal to have. But you never want to retire saying I only have the one, you want as many as possible.
It was a stretch to see Cork in a League semi-final following their opening round defeat by a Kilkenny
We went from an extreme high to an extreme low. We didn’t see it coming
team shorn a whole host of first team regulars back in February, a defeat he describes as ‘a slap in the face’.
However, Lehane also says it was the perfect wake-up call.
‘You can never really judge in the first round. I remember the year we played the relegation final, we beat Tipp in the first round. It’s maybe the kick up the ass you need, as well.’
It’s hard to believe that Cork haven’t won a National League title since all the way back in 1998.
‘It’s a long time. So we can’t afford to be saying, “we’ll take it easy in the League”.’
And he’s expecting a completely different game to the one-sided Croke Park encounter.
‘We know we’re not going in there thinking the same thing is going to happen,’ stresses Lehane.
‘We’re not going in there thinking it’ll be the way it was the last day. But they still have it in the back of their head so they’re not going to want to let that ever happen again.’
When he thinks back to the thrilling All-Ireland semi-final of 2013 that Cork edged, he concedes that the dismissal of Dublin’s Ryan O’Dwyer played its part.
‘That definitely did [have an effect], of course it did, having a man down.
‘It would always have an effect. Same as when we lost the Munster that year, Hoggy [Patrick Horgan] getting sent off.’
Cork lost out to Clare after a replay in that 2013 All-Ireland final and, sitting in Langton’s Hotel for this week’s press gig to promote the League semi-finals, it’s pointed out to him that he’s in the same venue where Henry Shefflin announced his recent retirement.
‘Holy God, it’s just sick how much he’s won. It would make you seriously jealous, in a good way.
‘You can’t say it’s impossible to match but it would be extremely hard to do.
No-one is going out there saying, “I want to match Henry”. You just go out there and you have to make it as simple as possible.
‘Like, this year you want to win the Munster or the Leinster or whatever it is,’ adds Lehane.
‘Then after that you think, right, in the back of your head there’s always the All-Ireland. I remember what JJ Delaney said, he said that he never really got caught up in anything. Now that he’s retired he looks back at what he won and it’s brilliant.
‘At the time, if you get caught up in anything, you lose your head.’