Captain among equals

Diarmuid O’Flynn spoke to a well focused Cork hurling captain who is well aware Wexford will be lying in ambush on Sunday.

ALAN BROWNE is normally a reticent kind of a chap. He is not at all the sort of character given to big statements and arrogant claims.

After this year’s Munster final success over Waterford, the Cork hurling captain said that his previous proudest moment had been when he led the Cork team out onto the Thurles pitch a couple of hours earlier.

However, when admitting that receipt of the Munster Cup on behalf of his team-mates had surpassed that feeling a thousand-fold, you knew beyond question the importance of it all.

For the veteran Blackrock forward, wearing the red-and-white of Cork, captaining the team, this team in particular, is just about as good as it gets.

“Yeah, and what helps you most is the attitude of the players, it’s been absolutely brilliant. There’s a great focus, a great attitude, even among those who have yet to get their game this year.

“That might not be the case if those sitting on the bench saw that a fella starting isn’t putting in the same effort, taking his place for granted, but that’s not happening. Everyone is trying their best, going in as hard as they can in every challenge in training to make sure they’re holding onto that place and that the management is given no opportunity or excuse to drop a player.

“You saw Diarmuid O’Sullivan being taken off the last day due to illness, Mark Prendergast came on and had an absolute stormer. That will tell you. There are fellas waiting on the wings, on the bench, to take our places. We’re just fortunate to be the first 15, but they could pick another 15 who would have the same heart, the same attitude.”

Though he might have been seen previously as one of the quiet men of the side, the captain’s role certainly appears to suit Alan Browne and he is having arguably his best-ever season.

It’s not that he’s having the greatest impact on the scoreboard, though his goal against Waterford was critical and typical, it’s his hunger for action, showing for the ball time and again in places far removed from his nominal corner-forward position, and even more crucially, winning possession.

“I would hope that was a factor in my game all the time,” he says. “I’m under a lot of puck-outs alright, but I’d rather see a high ball coming down on top of me than a low fast ball coming in. I don’t know why, age or whatever, I’m just offering support to the half-forward line, the full-forwards. I would be picked as corner-forward, but I have to stay out of the way as much as I can, out in the corner. When we’re playing against the wind, I might move out a bit to give Donal Óg an extra option.

“Basically the aim is to get the ball into the full-forward line, to Joe Deane and Setanta Ó hAilpín. That is the danger area, and it’s everybody’s job to get the ball particularly to those two.” That’s being a bit modest, really. While those two are undoubtedly top-class strikers, Alan has raised a few green flags himself, even if not as spectacularly.

In around the edge of the square there’s no better man to finish, whether with the boot, knee or elbow. The goal against Waterford was typical Alan Browne, pouncing on the ball breaking across the square with that snappy first-time swing.

“That’s patience, really, just turning up at the right place, right time. The full-back stopped, the corner-back stopped, I just pushed across. Other days someone might have picked the ball, hit it back over the square. Against Clare, I didn’t get any goal, didn’t get any score. It’s just a matter of being patient, not panicking, waiting and your time will come.”

The time is coming close now for Alan Browne and this Cork team. It wasn’t that long ago that he took a leadership role off the field which also surprised many. Browne was in the forefront of the players’ revolt that led ultimately to the installation of a new management team, but more importantly, a new attitude to the players’ needs from the Cork County Board.

That revolt led to huge pressure, huge expectation, for this season. So far, to their great credit, they’ve delivered, and Browne reckons it’s all behind them at this stage.

“We’re not thinking about that anymore. The pressure now is coming from the players themselves, on winning games, performing to the best of our ability. We’re the ones after doing all the hard training, we’re the ones after sacrificing our time, putting in the effort. If we’re thinking about last year, if we’re thinking about anything else, we’re only wasting our time.

“We said what we had to say then, and things have worked out since. There’s great co-operation between everybody, a cohesion between the county board, the players and the management. We’re just concentrating on hurling and winning games.”

One more win and they’re in the All-Ireland final, but captain Browne isn’t losing focus. Wexford is the only thing on his mind these days.

“They’re a very, very dogged team. They’ve fallen behind in every game they’ve played in this championship but they never give up, showed great spirit, different players coming through at vital times, getting the scores, making the clearances. They’re a very experienced unit.

“We played them in the league earlier in the year, and I know league and championship are miles apart, but we found it very, very tough down there. We won in the end but it was one of the tougher games we played in the league. Unless they beat Cork this Sunday, they’re not going to get a chance of making up for the disappointment they suffered in the Leinster final, against Kilkenny. I think that’s a driving factor for them, to get another go at Kilkenny.

“They probably feel they left themselves down that day, in the game for a long period but fell away at the end. It’s been a factor of their game since then that rather than fall away, they’ve been getting stronger and stronger towards the finish, running out as winners.

“We’re well aware of that. It’s a very, very similar situation to 2000, the last year we got to the All-Ireland semi-final, when we played against Offaly.

“The public had the opinion that day that it was a foregone conclusion, but they got a land. The players are wiser, a lot of times you learn more from defeat than you do from a win. The players know that nothing other than 100% effort this time will get us through.”