The long road back as Rebels struggle

It was the third inter-county defeat for Cork in 10 days. That didn’t help but it was the manner of it that hurt most: a 15-point defeat that would have been much more, had Tipperary not eased up on seeing the finishing line.

It had been anticipated as the tonic to the disappointment of the seniors on Sunday but offered up more of the same and then some. And yet it was in keeping with the trend of underage woe for Cork, without a Munster U21 title since 2007, and on Wednesday night going in search of just their second provincial final appearance in six years.

For any other Munster county apart from Tipperary, that record wouldn’t be so unpleasant but for expectant Cork, it makes for difficult reading on top of their minor pains.

The Cork County Board have belatedly gone about rectifying the situation. Last year, the Dr Liam Hennessy-led review of development squads/schools of excellence in the county was released but patience will be required for the proposals to come to fruition.

“It’s our own fault in not promoting it enough but there was a huge review of underage structures last year and the recommendations of that report have been put in place,” said Cork PRO Tracey Kennedy.

“Rebel Óg is the body implementing them and they are now in place for this year for our underage development squads.

“It won’t happen overnight but we do acknowledge there were failings in our systems and that we were also a bit late in terms of getting into development squads and other counties got ahead of us.

“But those new structures are there now with the Rebel Óg academy and Kevin O’Donovan in a full-time position [as development squads administrator]. The decisions have been made but it’s going to take time to reap results.”

John Meyler believes there should be a review of second level colleges in Cork city and feels it would serve hurling in the county better were they to amalgamate as it is 19 years since North Monastery won a Harty Cup.

“It’s 12 years since Cork have won a minor All-Ireland and all the other counties have caught up and passed them. You have colleges in Limerick and Waterford doing well like Ardscoil Rís and De La Salle but it’s the combined colleges in Waterford and Dublin that have been such a success.

“Cork have to do something similar. They could put together the colleges on the southside of Cork city together and the north colleges into their own team as well. Get lads playing at a higher pitch on better teams from an earlier stage and there will be benefits.

“Dublin started the whole thing eight or 10 years ago. It was about bringing lads to the next step, they were blooded quicker and got to compete at the highest level. There are no Cork colleges around the city doing well. It’s something that should be looked at.”

But what about the proud history of Cork colleges in the Harty Cup?

“It’s not about tradition anymore. Everybody is training and everybody is moving on and working hard. There are people now in place to develop teams and put new structures in place that are working for the counties.

“Everything is far more scientific and educated and in the likes of Waterford IT you’ve a new kind of sports people being created and they’re going back to their own counties with the skills they’ve picked up.”

In attempting to explain Cork’s malaise, one former star — who wished to remain anonymous — points to the style difficulties senior inter-county teams have had since the Newtownshandrum approach was adopted by Donal O’Grady and John Allen. In his opinion, it was an acquired tactic aped by all and sundry.

“Our game is designed around something that Bernie O’Connor did 20 years ago to facilitate [his sons] Ben and Jerry. Donal O’Grady then took it on board because he had athletes at his disposal. Unfortunately, that style of hurling has infused into our club game and you’ve teams and players playing it without the necessary pace or skill or without the intelligence of Ben and Jerry.

“The whole thing has collapsed hurling in Cork and against Tipperary I couldn’t recall any player playing the ball on the ground. The defence seemed programmed to give three passes between themselves before getting the ball out of the area instead of playing direct hurling.

“On Sunday, the goalkeeper was pucking it out to a wing-back and the ball was going over the sideline.

“The county board seems to be more concerned with the stadium than the state of hurling but if things continue the way they’re going, there won’t be enough people to fill it.”

Meyler agrees the Newtown style should have been kept exclusive to the Cork team of the mid-00s. “It’s often said they were the only team who could play that way. It’s about getting a balance between that game, the power hurling of Kilkenny four or five years ago and what Tipperary did when they were flying. There are going to be boom periods as there will be gloom ones. It’s time to batten down the hatches and work harder than everybody else.”