‘If it doesn’t hurt when you lose, it isn’t worth anything’

SUNDAY night in the Burlington, the traditional Cork All-Ireland after-match banquet hosted by the Cork Association in Dublin, and the atmosphere was electric, disappointment in the air, undoubtedly, but the hundreds in attendance, the players themselves, were trying to put a brave face on things.

Seán Ó Sé sang a few of the Cork anthems, there was laughter and music, craic go leor, as the fans tried to give the players a boost, let them know their support was there, regardless.

Monday morning in the same hotel, however, was a quieter place, a more subdued place. In ones, twos, threes, the Cork players drifted down to the lobby, and the pain of defeat was there, the cold realisation of what been lost plain for all to see.

It was there in the anguished features of team captain Pat Mulcahy, a proud, dignified but forlorn figure as he made his way to the sanctuary of some friends in the upper sanctum, it was in the bruised and stitched face of team icon Brian Corcoran, as he generously paused to give his thoughts to a few of us assembled vultures, picking over the bones; it was in the trembling voice of centre-back Ronan Curran, as he tried to put his thoughts into words.

“It really starts to hurt the day after. On the day they were the better team, their aggression and hunger were a bit stronger than ours. Maybe we’re fading a small bit, but they deserved their win, to be fair. They had their homework done, especially for the puck-outs — they lined out five across the half-back line for every puckout, they knew what we were up to.

“They swarmed around us any time we got the ball, but that was down to their hunger. Yesterday was youth and freshness against experience, and youth and freshness won out. You have to do that every year, change a few places, keep things ticking over, next year we’ll be looking forward to that. It will be a hard road out of Munster again, especially when you’ve been on the road for four years, four finals, we haven’t really had much of a break.

“With the new system you’re going to be hurling into August every year, September, there’s a lot of mileage, but next year is a new year. I suppose you could say we played our All-Ireland final in the semi-final this year (beating Waterford), we put a lot of effort into that, it was hard to peak again..”

For Brian Corcoran, after nearly four years with only two championship losses this was an old feeling, anything but welcome. “We’ve tasted it before, you win some, you lose some. Hard to know what went wrong, but they played a very high-tempo high-intensity game, and we didn’t match it. We knew they were going to be like that — it was like us two years ago (when Cork lost the final to Kilkenny), there’s something wrong if they weren’t fired up for it. We didn’t play well on the day — maybe it’s too easy to say we didn’t play according to plan, we weren’t left play either. They swarmed over us every time we got the ball. There seemed to be two or three of them around us. They hustled, harried, put a lot of pressure on us. They were talking about transition, but there was a lot of experience in that team, and even the young guys who came on had won a lot at underage, well used to Croke Park.”

What now for Cork, for Brian Corcoran? “We came back in 2004 after a defeat like this in 2003, there’s nothing like it to give you a kick up the backside, hopefully anyway.” Will the bearded one be there? “Hard to say, 12 months is a long time away, back into club championship now, see how that goes. I certainly won’t be making any decisions today or tomorrow.”

Back to club action for Pat Mulcahy also, with Newtownshandrum in the club hurling championship quarter-final in three weeks, for Ronan Curran in football. For Ronan and Brian, however, different perspectives, on the immediacy of that prospect.

“We have Nemo in the senior football in two weeks, something to look forward to, and you need something like that because you would be fairly gutted after losing an All-Ireland final; this is something to get back in the groove,” said Curran.

Corcoran, whose Erin’s Own side, having won the Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Sevens on Saturday, a hurling quarter-final date with East Cork rivals Bride Rovers. “That was a great win, in fairness, the club only decided to enter at the last minute. We saw a bit of it on telly on Saturday night, it was great for the lads. Bride Rovers in the quarter-final, that will be tough for us, but I haven’t thought about anything today — I just want to get out of here and get home, the thought of going back training isn’t very appealing. “Ultimately, however, if it didn’t hurt when you lose, it isn’t worth anything.”

Mark down that statement, because it’s worth repeating: “If it didn’t hurt when you lose, it isn’t worth anything.”

Cork were hurt by Kilkenny in 2003, came back with a vengeance. Kilkenny were hurt by Cork in 2004, Sunday was their day. In one guise or another those three — Curran, Corcoran, Mulcahy — all those other Cork panellists worth their salt, will be back. If this is worth anything.