Scale of Cork problems is tough to digest
Worse than 2002.
Worse than 1996.
Cork hurling supporters were trying to quantify the effects of another double-digit hammering, another limp championship exit.
Losing to Galway by 12 points after building an early six-point lead — a six-goal turnaround in other words — wasn’t as bad as either 2002 or 1996, however. It’s worse.
In 2002 Cork had a core of All-Ireland winners on their team from 1999, and a cohort from the 2001 All-Ireland minor-winning side to come.
In 1996 they’d won the previous year’s All-Ireland minor title with one of the greatest Cork minor teams of all, a side which would backbone the county’s excellent showing in the last decade.
That quality is not available now to a county waiting a decade for All-Ireland success at minor level, and longer for an U21 title, which in turn gives a cloudy look to the horizon at senior level.
What has gone wrong, then, with hurling in Cork? Everyone has a theory, or a target, when it comes to the decline of the game, but there were a couple of clues to be found down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday.
Waterford were playing in a third successive Munster senior final and an unprecedented third minor final in a row.
It is no coincidence that De La Salle college in the southeast’s capital has enjoyed All-Ireland colleges success.
West Waterford colleges have also combined to good effect. Hence the conveyor belt of talent.
In Tipperary, Thurles CBS have enjoyed All-Ireland colleges success also in the last three years, while in Limerick, Ardscoil Ris alumni Declan Hannon and Kevin Downes have spearheaded the county’s revival (along with teacher Niall Moran).
Clare’s St Flannan’s College are perennial colleges powerhouse, while their minors won the Munster title yesterday to go with their recent U21 success.
Meanwhile, colleges hurling in Cork city is practically dead.
A lot of sentimental mush is exhaled about the Dr Harty Cup, but current seniors in the competitive Munster counties cite their experience in the competition specifically as helping them develop.
If that outlet is unavailable, for all intents and purposes, in the largest urban area in the country where hurling is played seriously, then it’s not just a problem for Cork. It’s a problem for the GAA.
There are other challenges for the Leesiders. Cork suffers because it takes its commitment to hurling and Gaelic football seriously, though traditionally players who were talented in both codes tended towards hurling because there was more chance of success.
That has changed significantly in recent times, where hurling supporters tend to drift off into reveries which feature a fantasy half-forward line which includes Ciarán Sheehan and Aidan Walsh. Taken to its logical conclusion, this dream involves that duo feeding two others on the inside line who were lost to the red jersey, Tomás O’Leary of Munster and Ireland and Setanta Ó hAilpin.
(It is a matter of some annoyance to Cork supporters that of all the GAA players to try their luck Down Under, one of the most successful is a hurler rather than a footballer).
The mantra when discussing player development is the development squad. Everyone cites Kilkenny’s successful use of that model, but no-one ever remembers that those were brought in when the Noresiders felt they were in trouble at underage, losing a Leinster minor championship game.
The custodians of hurling in Cork, the Cork County Board, do not appear to recognise a problem in Cork, preferring to put the county’s lack of success down to bad luck and focusing on squabbles with the club forum and — incredibly — non-existent problems with sandwiches.
Citing the success of the Cork senior footballers as proof that all is well is the sloppiest thinking you could imagine: if your rear tyre is flat you can’t drive because the front tyres are both fine.
There’ll be other targets this morning. The source of the angst was an abject display on the field of play last Saturday. Some of the decisions of manager Denis Walsh have been baffling, and some of the players haven’t covered themselves in glory on the field of play either.
You’d like to think they at least recognise that there’s a problem, however. At least the sandwiches issue has been put to bed, though.
michael.moynihan@examiner.ie; Twitter: MikeMoynihanEx
