John Fogarty: Cork no longer needs to say sorry
Cork manager Kieran Kingston shakes hands with Kilkenny manager Brian Cody after Saturday night's Allianz League semi-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Watching Cork players being fouled repeatedly in the first half of Saturday’s Division 1 semi-final, it appeared the same afflictions that have hampered them for so many years were cursing them once more.
Too pure, too passive, too naïve, Kilkenny were only too happy to mow them down, arrest their hard running and live with the consequences of Patrick Horgan converted frees.
That relentlessness and ruthlessness that became a most welcome feature of their game in reaching last season’s All-Ireland final eventually brought Kilkenny to heel but that nagging feeling Cork stand a better chance of winning with a hardline referee in charge is still there.
However, what Seán Stack blew for on Saturday might not be what he, Fergal Horgan or another leading referee whistles in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Easter Sunday. The difference between league and championship officiating can often be as stark as night and day. Something more sustainable will be required if the gap to 2005 is to be bridged and yet there is a perception that regulation and more of it will benefit Cork more than most teams.
It’s to law and order where some of the county’s most prominent hurling figures have turned probably because their club game is regimentally officiated like nowhere else. The same championships that Kieran Kingston’s predecessor John Meyler bemoaned as producing players “too nice” for inter-county hurling and upsetting the team’s intensity levels.
Dónal Óg Cusack’s comments about the use of the spare hand in physical exchanges, many of which are justified and go back over 10 years now, have been made in general terms but you couldn’t help but think he had Cork in mind when they were slow to realise the benefits of it.
Would he have been as forthright in proclaiming a Cork player had a red card “coming to him” as he did about Gearóid Hegarty’s dismissal against Galway last month? Probably not because there is little reason to suggest one of his county men has continually brought it to the edge as Hegarty and therein perhaps lies the problem for Cork.
At the forefront of introducing the black card to hurling in his role on the playing rules committee, it may also be considered former county secretary Frank Murphy has done his bit for Cork. The referee of the 1971 All-Ireland and Munster SHC finals, Murphy signed off in 2019 stressing there “were blatant aggressive fouls” being unpunished in hurling and the misapplication of the advantage rule.
Cork’s nice guys tag is Kingston is aware of. Three years ago, he sarcastically referenced the perception as he complained about the officiating following their league defeat to Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. “Ye (media) guys probably have the stats, I think there was over 40 frees awarded today. I think we conceded 20-something of them and we’re ‘the softest team in Ireland’, as everybody knows.”
Since the strikes, Cork have found it difficult to project themselves. Much of the certainty and cunning that coloured their behaviour disappeared. In ways, there’s a bit of Harry Enfield’s Jurgen the German character about them, the tourist in England who over 40 years on from World War II feels he must apologise for the conduct of his nation. He protests too much, bristles as he seeks absolution and his sense of superiority never fails to manifest itself but ultimately he is beaten.
Moving away from this need to be on their best behaviour will benefit Cork but they’ve only recently got around to forgiving each other. Pat Mulcahy, now a selector with Kingston, spoke to this newspaper six years ago about the county’s need to heal. Catching up with the week of the All-Ireland final last August, he mentioned fences being fixed and many more stakeholders singing off the same hymn-sheet.
Coming away from that chat in Charleville, it was obvious why Kingston had previously wanted and eventually managed to bring the former captain on board. Defiant as he was positive about what Cork needed to do against Limerick, Mulcahy carried that unashamed air of, yes, Corkness.
Like fellow selector and his old full-back line buddy Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Mulcahy did as much instigating as he did reacting in his playing days. The team they prepare now could do with learning more of the less commendable tricks of the trade they exhibited on occasions. Or Cusack showed in swapping sliotars and breaking hurleys. Or Murphy demonstrated in his determination to exploit the rulebook in favour of Cork.
Whatever about the actual repayments Cork are making to the GAA for the overrunning costs of rebuilding Páirc Uí Chaoimh, in the metaphorical sense it has paid back the reparations from the strikes. It should no longer feel the need to say sorry.
Running into a third weekend and at the virtual conclusion of the Allianz Leagues, the media ban to reflect inter-county players’ expenses issues was always going to be challenged.
It’s been highlighted that Dublin football manager, former GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell, broke ranks when he spoke to the media after his side were relegated in Clones. In truth, there would have been more questions asked had he not spoken after a major disappointment for the winners of six of the last seven All-Ireland SFCs.
In Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night, Cork midfielder Darragh Fitzgibbon wasn’t supposed to talk to TG4 but after a thrilling win over Kilkenny and picking up the man of the match award, he could hardly be blamed for getting carried away. News on Friday that players are to extend their protest to the boycott of national and provincial championship launches as well as warning of disruption to commercial events will be keenly felt by the GAA, particularly the latter.
Their accounts show that sponsorship for the last financial year comprised over €9m. Endorsing the escalation, the GPA may also be preparing to take a hit. They are entitled to 15% of the GAA’s net commercial revenue and almost 40% of their income comes from GAA funding (over €900,000 in 2019). It would hardly be surprising if a boycott of such launches were interpreted by the GAA as a breach of the four-year commercial agreement the parties signed at the end of 2020. The GPA most likely understand that too, which would underline how serious they are in holding the GAA to account for what they said on Friday was the “disappointment treatment” of players.
Unofficial dialogue has continued but this latest development may bring them to the table because the bottom line could be impacted and Croke Park care dearly about their reputation and being seen to keep their house in order.
Not for the first time in this league, an elderly supporter arrive early on Sunday to a game in the hope of purchasing a ticket.
This Offaly gentleman explained that there were no tickets available in his local shop in Edenderry and not having access to the internet he wanted to know how he could gain admission. A steward appeared to direct him to a Centra outlet a 15-minute walk from the Bord Na Mona O’Connor Park but as courteous as the maor was, the inconvenience was obvious.
One county board came up with the novel idea of printing out tickets for old age pensioners anticipating that they would turn up looking for same at stadiums.
The gesture was a most kind one and some proof that in the GAA’s determination to make match days cashless and more streamlined, there is a heart. The hope is no elderly supporters are left behind now as the demand for tickets ramps up for the championship.
Getting a seat for the Cork-Limerick Munster SHC opener in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Easter Sunday, for example, could turn out to be a contest.
Likewise, the meetings of Donegal and Armagh in Ballybofey and Mayo and Galway in Castlebar next month.
It’s difficult enough for pensioners that their concession to lower league games has been removed. They shouldn’t be ostracised further.
