‘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.