A Cork victory would be nice, but...

BECAUSE Cork’s priorities are of a higher order these days, I’m sure there are many of the county’s football supporters less interested in success tomorrow at Croke Park than in whether the final pieces of the jigsaw are coming together to ensure All-Ireland success later in the season.

It’s an understandable piece of peering over the neighbour’s wall, so to speak, after the frustration of Cork’s most recent visit to Jones’s Road last September, but this national league final against Mayo is a Division One trophy, and winning it at HQ will be beneficial.

These are the tiny elements that make up the bigger picture. Conor Counihan and his selectors have not been found wanting in their readiness to shake things up in the league, but the key end product from this particular campaign needs to be the emergence of a few extra leaders — especially in attack.

Twenty five years ago, our Cork team was on the cusp of something special, but it took the arrival of Shea Fahy and Larry Tompkins to turn us into All-Ireland winners. Undoubtedly, Shea brought drive and determination, Tompkins brought the facility to get scores when they were badly needed. But more than that, both brought leadership to a team that wasn’t short of a few before they arrived in Cork.

Apart from the question of Michael Shields’ suitability at full-back, most of the 2010 issues for Cork are further up the field. When push came to shove last September, all the leadership in the All-Ireland final came from players in green and gold. When Kerry needed them most Declan O’Sullivan, Colm Cooper, Tomas Ó Sé, Tadhg Kennelly grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. And don’t forget, it was the callow Tommy Walsh who grabbed the key second-half scores.

There is oodles of talent in the Cork forward line, and I expect it will be given plenty of scope to flourish against Mayo tomorrow, but whether anyone has the personality to grab an ailing side and pull it back from the brink remains open to question.

Daniel Goulding and Paul Kerrigan have had stellar league outings, but neither was able to turn things around for Cork last September in those desperate second-half periods when Cork monopolised possession but couldn’t turn the screw. Tomorrow is a chance for Goulding, Kerrigan and several others, to squirrel away another little bit of big game experience in Croke Park for future benefit.

The Cork management have seldom started with the 15 announced this year — and in naming the same 15 that won in Páirc Uí Chaoimh recently, Mayo manager John O’Mahony looks to be at something similar — but if Aidan Walsh plays at midfield, it will be an experiment watched closely by shrewd Cork supporters. Like their half-back line, Cork appear to have numerous midfield options, but no-one seems quite sure at present who’s going to partner Alan O’Connor when the ground turns hard.

Nicholas Murphy, Graham Canty, Derek Kavanagh and Pearse O’Neill are all more than adequate, but Cork have moved beyond adequacy if their mindset is firmly focused on Sam Maguire.

To that end, if Pearse O’Neill returns and prospers at midfield and Eoin Cadogan returns and does likewise at full back, it opens up a number of options for Conor and his selectors.

That’s why tomorrow’s final is a particularly big occasion for Paudie Kissane and Fintan Goold, two players who, whether they are prepared to admit it, are still somewhat peripheral figures when the biggest days come around. Both need to start producing the kind of performances now that defy the selectors to drop them. The Clyda man has had a fine league campaign, but the competition is fairly hot in the area he’s aspiring to — and that doesn’t take any account of the injured John Miskella, who would be a certain starter.

Michael Shields will have a busy afternoon if Mayo stick with their stated selection of Aidan O’Shea at full forward, but beyond tomorrow, the St Finbarr’s man has too much football to be playing on the edge of his own square.

Ultimately, he looks like a ball-playing possession-spraying centre half-back. The pity with Eoin Cadogan’s injury is that this is precisely the kind of game the Douglas man requires. We all saw the raw potential when he was introduced in the All-Ireland final last year, and a competitive run-out in Croke Park is something he won’t have now until August at the earliest. Neither Graham Canty or Anthony Lynch, also injured, require such exposure.

Victory in a national league final for the second successive year is a statement in itself, and an important sign for the management that one bad half an hour last September shouldn’t mask the progress being made. However if Cork lose, and a couple of forwards show that they’re ready to move onto the next level, I don’t think Conor Counihan will shed that many tears on the train journey south.