Counihan playing it cool

IT IS a unique occasion for the current Cork football squad to be preparing for a league showpiece against Dublin, yet their manager has plenty of tales of springtime collisions with capital forces with which to regale his players.

Back in 1987, Conor Counihan was part of a Cork panel that were embarking on the journey south from Croke Park at the same time as Barney Rock was scoring the ‘winner’ that sealed Dublin’s success in a bizarre league quarter-final.

Twelve years on, Counihan was a member of Larry Tompkins’ backroom team when they toppled Dublin in the league decider on home soil in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The monsoon conditions of that day in 1999 still burn vividly in his mind yet for colour and drama, it is that Croke Park clash 24 years ago which stands out.