Injuries and mileage led to downfall, insist legends

THE loss of key players, rather than any underlying fundamental flaws, is being cited as the main reason Cork lost to Mayo in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final on Sunday.

Going into the game without attacking trio Daniel Goulding, Ciarán Sheehan and Colm O’Neill, all of whom played in last year’s All-Ireland final, and Barry O’Driscoll, who was introduced as a sub against Down in this year’s qualifiers, meant Conor Counihan’s side were left short of options in attack, resulting in just one point in the second half of Sunday’s defeat.

Dinny Allen, who captained the Rebels to the 1989 All-Ireland title, feels that, despite talk of a lot of strength in depth on the panel, the absence of those players was too much of an obstacle.

“Everyone wants to see something different in why Cork lost,” Allen says. “But when it comes down to it, the injuries were probably the main reason. For the past couple of years people have been saying there is a load of talent there but the likes of Daniel Goulding and Ciarán Sheehan don’t grow on trees, there’s talent but these lads are the best of the talent.

“You can’t just put your hand into the hat and pull out someone new every time. I know Cork were confident going in, but it does make a difference. As well, Mayo had been written off by everybody, but they were well-prepared, so they were lurking in the shadows and that was dangerous for Cork.”

John Cleary, who played alongside Allen and is currently the Cork U21 manager, points to other losses as well as heavy mileage.

“Obviously you’ve the injuries, which are going to make a huge difference,” Cleary says. “Then Derek Kavanagh is gone from last year too and Nicholas Murphy probably wasn’t at the same stage that he was last year. As well, the bulk of the team have been on the go now for four or five years, reached three All-Ireland finals and won three leagues. It’s hard to perform at your optimum every single game you go out.”

While Cork began well, Donncha O’Connor converting an early penalty while Kevin McLoughlin’s goal for Mayo was cancelled out by Paul Kerrigan, Allen feels the goals could actually have destabilised them.

“I think when a team gets an early goal, like Cork did with the penalty, it can set a worrying trend,” he says. “Obviously you’re never going to refuse a goal, but I’ve seen it myself at matches, and even played in those situations, when your first score is a goal the team relaxes and then they’re not able to shake themselves out of that when they need to.”

Complacency, and looking ahead to a putative semi-final with Kerry, was not a factor, in Cleary’s view.

“Knowing most of the lads involved, I’d say that definitely wouldn’t have entered the equation, they’d never show any complacency like that,” he says.

“Coming off the win against Down it’s always going to be very hard to replicate that again only eight days later.

“At the same time, Cork could have got over the line, there were some late chances, if that had happened then people would be saying that that was the Cork way. A few small things went wrong for Cork, but I don’t think that there should be a big over-reaction because of that.”

As for retirements, the Castlehaven man does not expect too many. “At least when that does happen in the quarter-finals, it gives guys time to reflect and have a good rest,” he says. “If the players who are there feel that they can still give something then I can’t see any reason why there should be retirements.”