O’Connor steps up to the plate

PEOPLE have been taken aback by the rise to prominence of Meath’s Stephen Bray this summer, but Donncha O’Connor’s ascent to the game’s summit has that beaten hands down.

Two years ago he was a substitute on the county junior team that played Meath in the All-Ireland junior final, but that was the day he left base camp, as he kicked two points after being summoned from the bench.

That junior side provided rich pickings for Billy Morgan. Ger Spillane, Alan Quirke and Daniel Goulding played in that side too, and until yesterday it could be argued that they all enjoyed higher public profiles than the 25-year old O’Connor.

Not anymore. Few people disagreed with the decision to name him man of the match yesterday after a contribution of five points, three of which came from play.

In hindsight, we shouldn’t have been too surprised. Prior to this he was second only to James Masters in the team scoring charts and it’s worth noting that his best return was the 1-4 against Kerry in the Munster final.

He clearly likes the big stage and though he began yesterday’s game with a bad wide from an easy enough free, he stepped up to the plate in the absence of the side’s attacking talisman.

“James is top class obviously,” O’Connor said. “He’s the top scorer in the championship and he has been Cork’s main scorer for the last three or four years, so if no-one was going to step up there would have been no hope. We dug deep and had a go. That’s all it was.”

It was the democratic spread of scores throughout the forward line that took most people by surprise though. Kevin McMahon and Pearse O’Neill chipped in with a combined 1-4 and in such circumstances, Masters’ absence was nullified.

That said, no-one expected it to be as easy as it was. “I suppose not,” said O’Connor, “But we said at half-time that, although we were going well, we couldn’t just sit on it. We wanted to keep going, keep going, keep going and that’s what we did.”

Few teams need added motivation for an All-Ireland semi-final but Cork’s depiction as rank outsiders in some quarters certainly did them no harm yesterday.

Anthony Lynch’s face was still a picture of determination and focus as he disappeared down the Hogan Stand tunnel afterwards, pausing only to remark on his amazement at the tone of the pre-match talk.

“It made no sense to me what the media was saying,” he said. “It didn’t bother us. We were bemused by it if anything. It’s been a few years since Cork have been (in a final) so it’s a great chance for us.

“Whether or not we can take that chance is the next thing now. I’m not surprised we won it but I am surprised at the manner. The goal really kicked it. It was a fortunate enough goal but they all count.”

“We always knew that we were capable of it, it was just a case of actually doing it,” O’Connor chipped in. “Let’s just hope we can keep it going now.”