Waiting too long for showtime
You never complain about it if you win. So I think a lot of that is only an excuse” — Donncha O’Connor last month on the four-week break between Cork’s Munster final and this weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
“The stat you hear thrown around is that only one team since the qualifiers came in have won in the circumstances; it’s a readymade excuse for teams to throw in the towel if ever there was one!” — Joe Sheridan before Meath became latest team to suffer six-day turnaround last Sunday.
Whether it’s been too long or too short, players have been keen to dismiss respective time spans between their provincial finals and subsequent games.
Excuses or not, both gaps have an impact on teams. Meath, as it proved, were still reeling and against Laois went down by 10 points for the second game in succession before staging a late if futile comeback.
What now for Cork? Up until last Saturday evening, their management players were in limbo, not knowing the identity of their opposition.
Training will have surely lacked some focus although Conor Counihan’s sideline men did comb the country for consecutive weekends as they attempted to cover in all bases and take in prospective opposition in qualifiers and provincial finals.
As most inter-county footballers will say, the ideal break between major championship games is three weeks — one to recover, one to prepare and one to focus. The four weeks Cork have had to tap their foot for is one too many and the obvious question is just how rusty they will be come Sunday afternoon.
Counihan admits there’s “a bit of unbalance” with the system and there’s apprehension even for a seasoned side like his.
“You’d prefer to know it but you knew where you were going. You knew you weren’t going to have it (the identity) and you made alternate plans as much as you could, in terms of focusing on whoever was left and looking at all the possibilities.
“It would be easier if you had two or three weeks to prepare knowing the opposition but that’s the same for everyone.”
But having played just two games in the championship, Cork and Mayo are in a boat of their own.
At least Mayo were given a rough ride in their Connacht final; Cork have to go back to June 10 — a full eight weeks — to the last time they felt the breath of another team on their neck.
Even at that, Kerry gave up the chase quite some time before the 70 minutes were up.
Counihan concedes to wondering just how beneficial two games in eight weeks has been to Cork in the grand scheme of winning an All-Ireland title.
A Munster title also meant something to Cork as it ensured a club fixture pile-up was avoided. But still...
“There are certainly times when you look at it, alright,” Counihan said of Cork’s lack of game-time so far this summer. “What the solutions are? I don’t know. Someone made a comment recently (Barney Rock) about the provincial losers and the six-day turnaround and possibly they could get home venue the next day out. Maybe that’s something.
“There’s a little bit of unbalance there at the minute. Having said that, at this stage of the year a lot of the teams that you’d expect to be there are still there.”
Like Cork, Kerry have had their difficulties transporting themselves from the Munster to the All-Ireland championship.
They became the first Munster champions to lose an All-Ireland quarter-final two years ago but there were several close shaves for both them and Cork at the same stage before that upset.
Despite a rocketing start against Kildare at this stage four years ago, Cork went almost 20 minutes without scoring in the second half before enduring a late onslaught.
Having been made to wait a yawning five weeks from their Munster final win, they surprisingly came out of the blocks strongly but their second-half fade-out was worrying.
The season before that, Kerry had to wait a massive six weeks between winning the province and facing Monaghan.
In the end, it was a Tomás Ó Sé fisted point that denied Monaghan another day of it after they had frightened Kerry, taking an early 1-2 to 0-1 lead.
The year before that, Donegal were edged out by Ger Spillane’s injury-time point even though Cork’s break between matches was down to three weeks because of a Munster final replay win over Kerry.
Cork can find some succour in how well they have performed in All-Ireland quarter-finals having won Munster finals against anybody but Kerry. Their 2008 provincial decider win over Limerick and 2002 one against Tipperary were followed up by handsome enough quarter-final wins. Whether that is because a last eight-game is something of a comedown from a Munster final win over the neighbours, those are the facts.
Against a Kildare team with three wins behind them and a group due a break, Cork’s reputation as being slow starters can’t precede them.
It’s not as if they’ve been waiting long enough for showtime.
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