FIRE AND ICE
Cork need to marry fury with focus again to prove that last week wasn’t a one-off
NOT long after the final whistle at Walsh Park last Sunday, Cork hurling manager Kieran Kingston looked around for a quiet spot to address the waiting media. He plumped for a dressing room where his selectors were still only teasing out the finer points of a backs-to-the-wall win against Waterford which kept their season – and hopes of progressing from Munster to the All-Ireland series – alive.
The tight confines though meant that his sideline lieutenants had to vacate the same space and one of them, Diarmuid O’Sullivan, couldn’t resist a gentle dig about all those who felt the need to lecture Cork about their set-up, their tactics, their stomach for the fight. It seemed columnists were his main point of ire. Even in a pair of shorts, and into his 40s, ‘The Rock’ still has that capacity to remind anyone in his company why he guarded the square like it was his own private property.
While Kingston cut an amiable air, speaking with disarming honesty about how he wasn’t fully sure yet how Cork turned it around after the tame Championship defeats prior to that against Clare and Limerick, not to mention the Allianz League final blow-out against Waterford – ‘If I could put my finger on that, I’d bottle it myself!’ – he pointed to how his players performed with ‘heart and soul’.
And while he was polite and mannered in the post-match conversation, the truth was that the whole Cork travelling contingent came with fire in their bellies. Such was Kingston’s fury with one of referee James Owens’ decisions that he was yellow-carded on the hour mark.
Thinking he had to leave the field, he actually took his place up in the stand. From there, another selector Pat Mulcahy bounced down at different stages of the match, spitting furiously over different decisions in the first half to the extent that it nearly kicked off with Waterford manager Liam Cahill, who wandered too close to the Cork technical area in front of the main stand.
‘The most pleasing thing for me is the lads played for each other, they played for the jersey, they played for supporters who were here, and they showed great unity and purpose in their approach to the game,’ said Kingston afterwards.
And while he and his selectors deserved to bask in the moment, the truth is that they had the humility to take on board the various criticisms in the public domain and change not only their starting 15 but gameplan accordingly. Captain Mark Coleman went to seven, rather than the loose sweeping role that was just part explanation for the gaping holes down the centre of the defence in previous games. Ciarán Joyce was placed at six where the young Castlemartyr defender showed maturity beyond his years in patrolling the D and linking play from defence. Rather than over-elaborating at the back, mixing it up far better with more direct ball to the inside line. Going back to old-school basics of competing hard under the dropping ball or winning the breaking ball.
As an example of the former, look at the point of the match from Darragh Fitzgibbon when he caught the Waterford puck-out and tore off on an electric solo run, bouncing the ball off the turf before pointing. As an example of the latter, look at the workrate of Conor Lehane, latching on to so much possession in the loose.
In fairness to Kingston, the management team had the self-awareness to make those necessary changes. Take a player like Lehane, a man-of-the-match contender last Sunday after scoring two points from play and being trusted to take over the free-taking duties when Patrick Horgan was substituted early in the second half. Back in the winter of 2020, Lehane was cut adrift of the senior squad.
At just 28, it looked like his senior career could well be over. But his form was such with Midleton as they swept to a Cork championship that Kingston changed his mind and recalled him. And then trusted him with a starting place.
Sometimes, the game isn’t that complex. Cork just have to do the same again versus Tipperary at Semple Stadium and they will be in an All-Ireland preliminary quarterfinal as the third-placed team in the Munster group, the same position from which Limerick won that breakthrough All-Ireland in 2018.
The hurling round-robin is the gift that keeps on giving. There isn’t a game across the five-team group in Munster or six-team group in Leinster that doesn’t have huge stakes riding on it.
While logic suggests it should all be over for Tipperary, the outside mathematical chance of getting out of the group means Colm Bonnar’s side will aim to match fire with fire against Cork.
They need Clare to continue their good form and beat Waterford to ensure a three-way tie on two points and ensure the final spot is decided by score difference. Spare a thought, too, for the poor Waterford fans having to cheer on Tipperary. They need Tipp to get a result against Cork. On a weekend when the Premier League goes down to the last game, there will be a splitscreen feel to the live television action, with RTÉ broadcasting both Munster games simultaneously. Now Cork have to show that same ‘heart and soul’ and prove their reinvention isn’t just a one-Sunday wonder.
Kingston and Co showed humility to take the criticisms on board