McCarthy the missing link man
Do you try to contain the opposing number 6, sacrificing your attacking instincts, or let him mark you and give him the freedom of the half-back line?
Conor McCarthy is the Cork man who will fill the number 11 jersey tomorrow in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway, and the Skibbereen man’s play-making ability means the westerners will have to pay close attention to him. Linking the play is a McCarthy speciality.
“He was the same type of player in many ways as a minor,” says Cork minor coach Diarmuid O’Donovan.
“He worked very well with the lads around him, setting them up for scores, a lot of the play went through him. He was a Cork minor for two years, playing on the team that was beaten by Limerick in 1998, along with Graham Canty, Sean Levis and Diarmuid Duggan, who are also on the senior panel now.”
The following year the Cork minor backroom staff realised they had the makings of a handy team - Noel O’Leary, Tom Kenny, Bernie Collins and Conor Brosnan were all involved, as was Damien Delaney of Cork City. McCarthy was the obvious choice for centre-forward and play-maker, but his career trajectory hit a speed bump.
“We dropped him for the Munster semi-final,” says O’Donovan.
“We felt he was inclined to keep the ball too long and hold up the play. I remember telling him he was inclined to take a hop and solo too much, but once he took that on board he progressed to the next level again. That was a good sign, that he could adapt his game.”
It certainly was. With McCarthy on board Cork beat Kerry by 16 points, and though the Leesiders were ambushed by Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final, O’Donovan was impressed by the Skibbereen man’s attitude.
Tom Kenny was the player who caught the eye for that minor side, but O’Donovan always felt McCarthy could also make it to the very top.
“He’s a fierce student of the game, he learned and he learned well. He’s very dedicated - earlier this year, for example, he had an ankle injury and I met him down the Páirc one night going through this series of exercises to build up his ankle. Very tedious, but he was sticking to it.”
That combination of focus and application also came to the fore when McCarthy arrived in college.
“We would have marked him down as a prospect straight away, a Cork minor coming in,” recalls Des Cullinane of the UCC Gaelic football club.
“He’s progressed a lot in the last five years or so and thinks a lot about his game - maybe too much at times - but he’s very focused. He wanted to play senior for Cork and this is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream for him.
“He’s a very intelligent guy on and off the field. Not alone was he one of our better footballers, he was also an officer of the club and a leader with good administrative skills. He’s very much a modern footballer in that he thinks a lot about tactics and he’s not slow to offer opinions to coaches.”
Third-level competition helped McCarthy develop a scoring touch as well, recalls Cullinane.
“The year of the foot and mouth outbreak we had a very good Sigerson team and the competition was cancelled. We ended up playing Jordanstown that year in Newbridge and Conor gave an exhibition from corner-forward. His scoring record with us and Skibbereen is very good.”
A UCC teammate concurs: “That game against Jordanstown was special, Conor was a fresher but he chipped in four or five points from play. The season before last he was captain, and he came into his own with that responsibility - it was at the time he was just breaking into the Cork senior side. He was always more of a scorer with us, we’d have been relying on him to chip in with a few points in games.
“This year we lost to Sligo IT in the Sigerson semi-final, and they went on to win it, but Conor was outstanding in that game, unbelievable at centre-forward. He more or less kept us in it on his own - we were eight points down in the first half and he brought us back almost single-handedly.”
Cullinane acknowledges that McCarthy’s role with Cork is different.
“He loves that play-making role, and we often thought if he was slightly taller you could play him at midfield. He has a great engine, covers ground and his distribution is very good.
Playing rugby for Skibbereen RFC in the off-season probably helps.
“He’s getting more confidence now playing for Cork, so he’s coming into his own.”
That UCC connection continues.
After a degree in commerce, McCarthy has moved onto a Masters and is spending the summer running GAA camps with fellow graduate and Cork hurler Tom Kenny, team-mate on the ’99 minor team.
They’ve been travelling the county, grounding kids in the basics, investing in Cork’s GAA future. When it comes to linking the play, those kids couldn’t learn from a better teacher.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
