Cork unearthing attacking gems in the unlikeliest of places

OVER two decades, the landscape has shifted irrevocably. During Cork’s football hegemony in gaining consecutive All-Ireland senior titles in 1989 and 1990, their scoretakers in the full-forward line came from the city powers of Nemo Rangers and Bishopstown, and the West Cork strongholds of Castlehaven and O’Donovan Rossa.

The only player outside of the senior club group was Midleton’s Colm O’Neill, full-forward on the 1990 side, and, with some deviations, the trend of senior clubs dominating Cork inside lines has continued ever since. But the sense that the lesser lights are coming to the fore in Cork football has gained greater currency in recent years and next Sunday’s is the most vivid manifestation of that.

Daniel Goulding, Colm O’Neill and Donncha O’Connor make up the Cork full-forward line but it is their origins that are most striking. The trio hail from Ballydesmond, Ballyclough and Éire Óg, three clubs whose football histories have seen modest achievements. It’s a remarkable feat, a tribute to the efforts of the clubs involved but also to those in charge of Cork teams for trawling the county in search of talent.