June glory means little in September
Both Kilkenny and Kerry were well tested this year but tradition and experience pulled both through in the end.
For Kerry, Sunday turned out to be a sweet ending to a difficult year but for Cork it was a disappointing ending to a great year.
There is no doubt that Cork were a much improved team this year, being at their glorious best in the Munster semi-final replay in Páirc Uí Chaoimh when they overwhelmed the Kingdom in the second-half. It was ironic that Jack O’Connor pointed to that defeat as a crucial turning point.
The whole spine of the team was changed – a new full-back, a new centre-back, a new midfield, a new centre-forward and a new full-forward. It worked but it brings clearly to light a point I have made in this column a few times before – with the introduction of the back-door system, the whole dynamic of the championship has changed.
Counties with designs on Sam or Liam, especially those trying to make the breakthrough need to look at what priority they give to the provincial championship. It’s great to win a provincial title but for aspiring counties its value in terms of ultimate glory in September is of dubious value.
If the opposition (who you are likely to meet again) learn more from defeat than you do from victory, one has to question the importance of glorious victory in June. There are counter-arguments such as confidence and momentum that comes with victories, but if I was a county manager sitting down to plan an All-Ireland victory, I would have a long hard look at how a provincial campaign should be planned.
For some counties like Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Sligo, Wicklow etc, a provincial title is almost as good as an All-Ireland but for a few select counties – where the old enemy can come back to haunt you – it’s something that is worthy of a serious debate. Perhaps, some club might organise such a debate over the long winter months or some student might do a thesis.
During the week, I said to many people that I thought the destiny of Sam would be decided by how well the Cork full-forward line would play. While the Cork full-forward line started well and Colm O’Neill scored a brilliant goal – the goal of the year in my book – the Kerry full-back line grew in stature from there on. That was partly due to the brilliance of Marc O Sé, Tommy Griffin and Tom O’Sullivan, but also due to difficult ball into the Cork full-forward line.
For the man of the match, in the Sunday game, three players were nominated, two of them, O Sé and Tom O’Sullivan were in the full-back line. In fact, former Uachtarán and Monaghan manager, Sean McCague said his man-of-the-match was Tommy Griffin. When have you seen three members of a winning full back line in contention for man of the match honours?
Meanwhile this Cork team deserves an All-Ireland and at least, unlike 2007, they now know they are nearly there. They need to find those extra few inches to get them over the line and get a long overdue medal for some of their greatest footballing servants.
