Darragh Fitzgibbon: 'We have broken Cork fans' hearts a few times'

The decision by the county board and previous management not to arrange a homecoming after last year’s All-Ireland final defeat raised eyebrows, but the appreciation for fans is abundantly clear in the amount of time players and management spent with them after games.

“There seems to be a special bond between the players and the fans at the moment,” says captain Darragh Fitzgibbon. “It does not matter where the game is played, the stadium is going to be full of 50,000 Cork fans.

“It does not matter who we’re playing. That was highlighted (v Offaly). There might have been plenty of excuses for some people not travelling, saying ‘We might leave this one and if they get to Croke Park then we will go then.’ Because it is expensive, to be fair.

“We do appreciate the time and the money they are spending. They have been on the journey. We have broken their hearts a few times but we have also had some great days. And we hope to give them some more great days over the next couple of weeks.

“I saw a thing as well where the Cork-Offaly match was the biggest supported fixture in Irish sport that weekend (40,185), ahead of the URC final (39,184), so that just tells you how incredible our fans are. 

"Hopefully, we can keep giving them that reason to support us because it is special for us to be able to walk out and see that sea of red on the terraces.”

Fitzgibbon obviously empathises with their yearning. On Saturday, he hopes to qualify for a fourth All-Ireland final. He’s 29. You don’t need to tell him but he embraces it.

“It sharpens the hunger more than anything. We are all getting older so we realise as we do so how fewer opportunities we will get. I don’t think there is either a burden or a pressure on us. We see it as a great opportunity. 

"Saturday we will get to play in Croke Park in a full stadium. There is no con to that, no pressure. It is where we want to be.”

Damien Cahalane turns 34 next month but the convincing manner in which he has taken over from injured Ciarán Joyce at full-back has inspired his team-mates.

“In the playing group, we appreciate him more than anybody. He’s an incredible athlete. The one thing I’ve always admired about him, even since I came in, is his mental preparation and his mental resilience. It doesn’t matter what anybody is saying about him or how a game may be going for him. 

"It might be going good or it might be going bad, but he’ll always back himself and he always has a few things that he knows work for him.”

To be mentally tuned in on Saturday, Cork are turning to a Galway native in Gerry Hussey, their performance coach since the start of the season. Hussey assisted Tipperary when they won the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2016.

“He’s kind of brought a lot of us outside our comfort zone, which has probably stood to us and made us a lot more comfortable,” remarks Eir ambassador Fitzgibbon. “Even when you’re playing and things might go wrong or things might go bad, you’re kind of used to maybe that bit of chaos that can be around the place and how you respond to it.

“He’s got another guy, Eric Baxter, he’s a Cork man who works with him as well, so any time Gerry’s not there, Eric is consistently there. So that just brings that bit of consistency into our training the whole time. Eric’s role is just to basically be one of us, but I suppose he’s that buffer between the players and Gerry.

“I think the biggest thing that Gerry has brought is all his experience with all the other teams that he’s been involved with before. He knows that things don’t always go right and he’s kind of brought that to us, that we control our response to everything on how things go.”

Like Rob Downey earlier this week, Fitzgibbon references Cork’s disappointing championship record against Galway these last 17 years. The All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to them in Thurles four years ago is one that stayed with the Charleville man.

“A lot of players probably felt like we let Kieran Kingston down as well, because we just didn’t perform at all. We were probably lucky, I think we only lost by a point or two in the end, but Galway were probably much better than us that day.

“I don’t think Cork have beaten Galway in a championship since 2008 as well, it’s been a long time so Galway have the tradition on their side and momentum on their side over the last couple of games that we’ve met.”

Inside Cork’s tent, Galway are commanding the players’ full respect. 

“You can see how good they were against Dublin as well in the Leinster final,” says Fitzgibbon. “They play a little bit of a different brand of hurling as well. That’s going to be a challenge, to figure it out in our training and bring it into the game.”