Kieran Shannon: Can Cork close the door on opening day blues?

Cork have consistently struggled in their first game of a Division 2 campaign and it has proved costly

Luke Fahy of Cork in action against Joe O’Connor of Kerry in the McGrath Cup final at Pairc Ui Rinn.

Tue, 23 Jan, 2024 - 07:15

Kieran Shannon is an award-winning sportswriter renowned for big interviews, insightful columns and an unrelenting focus on high‑performance sport.

Although this weekend was Malachy O’Rourke’s first time scaling the All-Ireland peak, he’s long operated at football’s highest altitude and for him Cork’s Colm O’Neill was the best teacher of how thin the air there can be.

In 2015 after O’Rourke had guided Monaghan to two consecutive promotions, they were in Castleblaney playing a Cork team that were on their way to making a fourth Division One final in five seasons. Monaghan were on top for much of the game but whenever it looked like they were about to pull away from Cork O’Neill would lasso them right back.