Cork strike a blow

ALL victories are necessary victories no team wants to lose after all.

But some are absolutely imperative and Cork's 1-18 to 0-10 destruction of Clare at Semple Stadium yesterday falls into this category.

There was a lot riding on this. In a way, the build up to the semi-final began with a bunch of nervous young men facing the media at a Cork hotel and announcing that they were making history by becoming the first ever amateurs to go on strike.

That strike was the catalyst which led to the appointment of Donal O'Grady.

It was a hugely necessary move, a break with unhappy circumstances. But it was also a massive rod for the back of the players involved.

Fail to produce the goods in the championship and even well disposed supporters might wonder what all the fuss had been about.

The strikers would be told that their demands had been met and grievances assuaged, yet still they couldn't cut the mustard.

It was a powerful incentive against failure, perhaps one fiercer than any of the impulses driving Clare.

There were other motivating factors which must have preyed on the minds of the players.

The series of disappointing displays which began with the 2000 All Ireland semi-final had ended with last year's debacle against Galway.

People wondered out loud if the 1999 All Ireland victory had been entirely deserved.

The days when Cork were seen as the team most likely to dominate the next decade seemed part of ancient history.

And so Cork came to Thurles yesterday with the team made up of players whose lustre had faded and the youngsters untried at this level.

They were up against a Clare team which had destroyed Tipperary last time out and was packed with players who have won the kind of gruelling championship games Cork have shown no stomach for recently.

Yet, this was a game Cork could not afford to lose if the players were to have any credibility.

Some hurlers wilt under that kind of pressure, others thrive on it.

By the end of yesterday's first quarter it was apparent that O'Grady's team contained the latter variety.

They hit Clare the way the Banner had hit Tipperary, blocking, hustling and hunting in packs.

In a reversal of traditional roles, Clare were the indolent favourites knocked out of their stride by hungry outsiders.

Mickey O'Connell epitomises the vertiginous changes in fortune which have bedeviled Cork over the past few years.

His bravura display of point-taking against Waterford got the bandwagon rolling back in 1999 when he proved a huge success as a forward converted by necessity into a midfielder.

Since then, nothing. O'Connell seemed destined to be remembered as a one-season wonder, someone whose name only came up when the where-are-they-now questions were asked.

That was until Donal O'Grady took a punt on the forgotten man and charged him with the task of curbing Colin Lynch's massive influence at midfield.

Hands up who thought O'Connell had it in him to neutralise Clare's most important player?

But O'Connell, by nature a stylist rather than a scrapper, outlynched Lynch. He harried his man at every opportunity, refused to take a step back when the exchanges got heated and eventually came out on top.

Such was Lynch's frustration that he eventually let himself down and was sent off for an off-the-ball blow on O'Connell. Both physically and psychologically, the forgotten man had won the battle.

Setanta O hAilpín was another big winner. Great things are expected of the rangy Na Piarsaigh forward but making a championship debut in direct opposition to Frank Lohan was a tall order.

Yet, the corner forward always looked dangerous and had already poached two points when Lohan floored him with the ball once again elsewhere.

When O hAilpín regained his feet he was harshly yellow-carded.

That was two strikes against an inexperienced player, if Lohan's attempt at intimidation didn't upset him, frustration with the referee might have put O hAilpín off his game.

The youngster's reaction? He soared to win the next ball in, skinned Lohan and whacked the sliothar over the bar.

Thirty seconds later he won an even more difficult contest, the shot came off the post and Cork won a penalty.

We knew the big lad was physically imposing but mental resilience seems part of his armoury as well.

In fact, mental strength was a key to Cork's victory as other players won their battles with personal demons.

Less than a month ago Tom Kenny made his senior football championship debut and was hauled off ignominiously early as Cork capitulated to Limerick.

Yesterday was his hurling championship debut and he wouldn't be human if the previous experience hadn't preyed on his mind.

He overcame doubt to perform splendidly at wing back.

Niall McCarthy can't have been immune from worry either.

Previous championship appearances had been disappointing and of late he had struggled to make an impression at intermediate level with Carrigtwohill. Big deal.

McCarthy showed a huge appetite for work and punishment at centre half forward.

Most notably, in the sixth minute of the second half after Clare had rattled off five points in quick succession to threaten a comeback, it was McCarthy who fielded a clearance, took on the defence and fired in a powerful shot which O hAilpín deflected over the bar.

There would be no collapse.

Four years ago, back when the world was Cork's oyster, it looked like Joe Deane and Seanie McGrath would be the DJ and Charlie of the new millennium.

That didn't happen, McGrath has struggled to regain his form while Deane's ascent to the pantheon was slowed by the inconsistency of his team mates.

But with Brian Corcoran, Fergal Ryan and Mark Landers having departed the scene, the onus of leadership has fallen on Deane.

Yesterday it looked a burden lightly borne, the speed of his reaction for the first goal bringing a certain Kilkenny legend to mind and reminding us of the great potential once exuded by Jimmy Barry Murphy's All Ireland winners.

It was as if the fallow years had never happened.

Cork, as O'Grady will be reminding his players, have won nothing yet.

But this was a hugely important step.

From now on, when supporters think about Cork hurling it will be what happened on the field, rather than off it, which captures their interest.