Counihan’s unsung heroes
Veterans Derek Kavanagh and Conor McCarthy are the only outfield players in the Cork squad yet to play an active part in the Rebels’ Championship campaign – but Counihan insisted last night: “They’re the reason we’re in an All-Ireland final.”
Nemo Rangers’ Kavanagh and McCarthy from O’Donovan Rossa were both involved in Cork’s last All-Ireland final appearances two years ago, but they’ve struggled to get a look in this season, as a new wave of talent has poured through to the senior ranks.
But Counihan offered an interesting insight into the squad mentality of the Munster champions, saying: “They have never dropped their standards or their attitude for a single moment this season. In fact, if anything, they’ve picked it up this year. Those two guys have us where we are today. They’ve constantly been asking, ‘how do I improve on this?’, which is remarkable. I don’t like picking guys out, but they perhaps represent the reason we’re in an All-Ireland final.”
The Cork selectors continued to juggle their hand in Sunday’s outstanding 1-13 to 0-11 victory over Tyrone at Croke Park, with Douglas’s Eoin Cadogan making his Football Championship debut.
Counihan added: “It might be easy for the likes of Derek and Conor to take their foot off the pedal, but they’ve been the complete opposite. I think that’s incredible, and it has a nice rub off on other fellas too, who see this and feel ‘I need to push on myself’.”
The Cork coach had a message too for anyone of his semi-final heroes thinking of resting on his laurels: “I don’t see it as a problem with this group of players; it’s ingrained into them to work hard, but if a fella wants to take things easy there’s no problem filling his spot.”
The Aghada man studied the TV re-run of the semi final win on Sunday night, and referred once more to a couple of systematic glitches in the performance.
“I thought we gave away a lot of soft ball, at times when we weren’t under any major pressure.
“You wouldn’t be getting away with it in a final. I think on occasions, our tackling needs to be a bit more controlled and disciplined.”
Counihan said the Cork dressing room “got a wrinkle” of Sean Cavanagh’s absence about a half an hour before the start of the game, but never considered altering their game plan.
“Firstly, we were very conscious that Tyrone could come out with anything, so we stuck with our own plan. We had our match-ups done beforehand, and that included the likes of Graham Canty taking the game to Tyrone by driving on. It looked at times like (Joe) McMahon played a bit wide, giving Graham the room to get forward, but if McMahon had scored two or three points, it might have looked different. I think Graham read it well.”
The Cork coach added: “I keep making the point about Championship games being 70 minutes on a given day, in given circumstances. We were more focused on our own preparation last week than whether our intensity would be up to scratch. To a certain extent, form goes out the window in these one-offs. You can make predictions, but if one side doesn’t click or get things right on the day, you can have a seriously distorted result. That’s happened more than once in this year’s Championship.”
Could still happen to the only unbeaten side left in the football championship? “Unfortunately, you can’t bring your scores from previous games into a final. That’s where we are now, and if we lose will anyone remember that we beat Tyrone in the semi-final?”
Having conceded a sloppy 2-10 in the landslide quarter-final win over Donegal, holding the reigning All-Ireland champions to 11 points represented a major improvement for Cork’s defensive set-up.
As well as hitting his targets with a variety of angled kick-outs, Cork keeper Alan Quirke was particularly sharp in coming off his line and dealing with high balls – one, at the same end as the infamous Colm Cooper collision a few seasons back.
“Look, Alan made one mistake – and only one – in the final two years ago,” said Counihan, referring to Kerry’s first goal in the 2007 decider, “but if all keepers were to be judged on the basis of one mistake, I don’t think there would be anyone left between the posts. He is a crucial part of our strategy now, just as he was two years ago.”
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