Anthony Daly: Whatever happens on Sunday, Cork’s time is coming

Cork U20 players celebrate with the cup after beating Galway in the All-Ireland final. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

I have some great friends in the northside of Cork city, real diehard hurling men. A good few years back, I met a gang of them in Blackpool for a pint. The place was full of Glen Rovers men. I was introduced to one of the older generation and he spent the evening telling me about the eight county titles the Glen won between 1934 and 1941 and how overconfidence cost them the ninth in a row.

When we got talking about Clare hurling, the auld fella wasn’t long putting me in my place. “Ye’re roaring there about two All-Irelands in 80 years,” he said to me. “Teddy Mac won two in a fortnight.”

Well now, Cork could win three All-Irelands in five days. If they do, I wouldn’t like to be meeting your man next Monday if he’s still with us.

You have to milk it when you’re going well and there is no better crowd than Cork to surf those huge waves of confidence and momentum once the Rebel tide gets whipped up.

After such a long drought at underage level, the tide is now rising to a flood. Pat Ryan and his management have done an incredible job by winning two All-Ireland titles in the space of five weeks. We’ve all heard that clichéd tale about waiting so long for a bus to come along and then two arrive together. Well now, there’s a potential fleet of buses lining up.

You’d feel a little sorry for Denis Ring who did so much to shape a lot of the current Cork seniors, but who couldn’t buy an All-Ireland win, having lost minor, U21, and U20 finals in the space of three years.

This result was never in doubt. Cork could have been comfortably ahead at half-time by 15 or 16 points. Similar to the U20 All-Ireland final last month against Dublin, Cork got a brilliant start, being 1-5 to 0-0 ahead before Galway knew where they were. Cork just dominated possession. If you were to forensically analyse it, Cork could have had another 1-7 or 1-8 on the board by half-time.

Galway had no answer to Padraig Power and Jack Cahalane. Galway did make some good changes at half-time. They thundered into the game in the third quarter but Power’s goal to push the margin back out to six was like a knife through Galway’s hearts after such a mammoth effort to reduce it to three.

Apart from that purple patch after half-time, Galway were always struggling for oxygen in the match because Cork were squeezing the life out of them everywhere. They couldn’t win a puckout in the first half. They couldn’t make the ball stick in the half-forward line and they eventually had to bring out Donal O’Shea, their main man inside, to try and generate something.

Jeff Lynskey always sets his teams up with a sweeper but Cork just torpedoed it by making the sweeper completely redundant. As soon as Cork won the ball, they transferred it rapidly and got the sliotar inside, always having runners coming off the receivers. They killed Galway with crossfield balls but even if they had to go long and direct, Cork had guys like Brian Hayes who could win the ball in the air. Having nine scorers from play perfectly encapsulated a really polished display, and the quality of their forwards.

Cork were hungrier and sharper all evening. They were winning the 50-50 contests from the first whistle. They were hunting for scores right up until the last whistle. Cork were just relentless.

Galway couldn’t deal with that onslaught but it was another disappointing night for Galway, especially in the context around that perennial debate of not being able to transition All-Ireland minor wins into U20 success. It has really hurt Galway because the same problems are evident in trying to get enough of those All-Ireland minor winners through at senior level.

It’s incredible to think Cork were able to produce this level of performance without Alan Connolly, Shane Barrett, and Daire O’Leary, another senior panelist who missed out through a hamstring injury. Ben Cunningham, Ger’s son, who came in was brilliant is still under 18.

The red tide is building but that won’t bother John Kiely and his players. They’ll be thinking ‘This is our time’. It may be but, whatever happens on Sunday, Cork’s time is coming. Big-time.

There was a huge Cork crowd in Semple Stadium. That thunderous war cry of ‘Rebels, Rebels’ rang out in the Thurles air in the dying minutes to signal the arrival of another All-Ireland, and to also loudly declare the promise of more to come by the end of the week.