We never panicked, says skipper Murphy

MANY a team has discovered the knack of winning tight games, but only a select few have all but forgotten how to lose them.

The ladies footballers from Cork are card-carrying members of that select club. Unbeaten since February last year, they had to draw on every last morsel of experience, nous and grit in their well-stocked arsenal yesterday to overcome the challenge of Armagh.

This was far from vintage Cork. Porous as a sieve in the first half, they had equally pressing problems at the other end of the field, where they very nearly managed to kick a wide for every player they had on the pitch.

And still they never panicked. At half time they retreated to their dressing room to dissect their stuttering performance and, where other teams would have found despair in the findings, Cork found inspiration.

Coach Eamonn Ryan was the epitome of calm at the break. If they could stay within four points of Armagh after 30 minutes as bad as that, he argued, what could they achieve by lifting it by five or 10%? “Eamonn said before the game it was going to go to the wire and we always had faith in ourselves that we were going to come back,” said captain Juliet Murphy.

“We never panicked. It might be something that catches us eventually, that we won’t be able to pull a game back. We were playing with fire a little bit but we’re happy today.”

Ryan’s calm was still in evidence 20 minutes after the game, his relaxed slouch against the Hogan Stand tunnel suggestive of a man waiting for a bus rather than one who just masterminded back-to-back All-Ireland titles.

“We were 30 minutes away from losing the championship without having performed,” he reasoned. “They had 30 minutes to get their act together, which they did. Even though they played badly all through the game, didn’t play as well as they can do all through the game, it was hard to know if that was down to Armagh or because they were such hot favourites.

“Favouritism is a funny, funny thing. You can talk and talk and talk but it is very hard to guard against human nature. It’s hard to do anything about complacency if it gets a grip on you.”

Had they lost this one, they would have been ravaged by regret all winter. Even in the second half, when they finally managed to get their foot on Armagh’s throat, they squandered the chance time and again to land the killer blow in front of the posts.

The crucial period was undoubtedly the 10 minutes when Armagh corner back Caoimhe Marley was in the sin bin, a spell that saw Cork land 1-1 and take a lead they would never surrender.

“Croke Park on All-Ireland final day is a different story to hitting them over in training,” said Murphy. “There’s a lot of tension around. I would have to give the girls great credit. No-one ever put the head down and felt sorry for themselves.

“They were just worried about the next ball. While it wasn’t the best performance the result was all that mattered. That’s what we came up here for.”

Their achievement in claiming back to back leagues and All-Irelands is all the more amazing considering that, three years ago, the county had never won either trophy at senior level.

Sweet and all as last year’s breakthrough successes were, everyone in the Cork camp was in full agreement yesterday that this latest triumph will be even more treasured.

“The two-in-a-row hasn’t been done in ladies football in the last couple of years so we’re delighted to have achieved that,” said Murphy. “There’s such a high standard in the game at the moment but we never looked at it as retaining the title.

“We just went out to win every game and it will be the same next year. It will be a fresh start. As far as we were concerned we handed back the Brendan Martin Cup at the start of this year. It was a brand new championship. You’re not talking about statistics.”

Maybe not Juliet, but the rest of us are. The adrenalin was still pumping yesterday when the first whispers about the elusive three-in-a-row began to float around Croke Park.

Six times now the two-in-a-row has been achieved since the early nineties, but no-one has managed a hat-trick since the great Kerry side won the last of its nine successive titles in 1991.

“I’m just glad that we did two in a row,” chuckled Ryan.

“They’re a good team but there are others like Galway and Mayo and Laois. We were lucky that we got away early from Laois which didn’t happen today. I don’t know what to say about three-in-a-row. I suppose we’ll give it a go but it’s a long way away yet.”

After yesterday, few would bet against them.