Cork contenders again — but is that enough?

ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL:

Not to be consciously attempting to wreck the heads of the Examiner’s traditional demographic here, but let’s ignore Sherlock Holmes’s injunction about the inadvisability of theorising in advance of data and let’s suppose for a moment — just for a moment — that Cork lose tomorrow.

What will be said? What will be the end-of-year verdict on them? What will have changed about them in the space of 12 months? What progress will be recorded? Any progress, even?

On the face of it, not a lot. They reached the All-Ireland semi-final last year and they’ll have departed the championship at the same stage this year. They didn’t win Munster last year and they didn’t win it this year. Come to think of it, having reached the league final last year, they got relegated this year. No giant leap forward there, you’d say.

But get past the first-glance stuff and there are numerous reasons to be cheerful. They saw off dangerous opponents in the provincial semi-final. They had legitimate might-have-beens to peddle after the final. And in Thurles a fortnight ago they set the seal on this summer of regime change, two giddy months in which autocracy has been replaced by democracy, by committing an act of regicide. True, Kilkenny were going to topple sooner rather than later, but Cork still had to produce the knife and kill the king. They did. In the process they took what was only the county’s second major championship scalp since 2006.

We don’t have to wait till teatime tomorrow, then, to hail this as a year of progress, not stasis — and that was no certainty given the losses they’ve suffered. If they don’t win the All-Ireland this season they’re nicely positioned to win it before long — and that’s a remark that couldn’t have been made 12 months ago.

Favourite this and retweet it: Cork are contenders again.

If Dublin as Leinster champions were facing any other beaten Munster finalists, bar Tipp, you wouldn’t feel queasy on their behalf. Because it’s this crowd, however, you do. They may not be great. But dammit, they are Cork. Clichés become clichés for a reason. In this case the reason is 30 All-Ireland titles.

It won’t have done them any harm that their quarter-final victory was overshadowed by other events. The sending-off of Henry Shefflin was a retread of the sending-off of Patrick Horgan in the Munster final: harsh without being a travesty.

There were grounds for arguing that Horgan’s dismissal changed the result at the Gaelic Grounds; there were none for arguing that Shefflin’s dismissal changed the result at Semple Stadium.

Cork were always in control, Kilkenny always gasping for air.

After the penalty the winners were content to counter punch rather than going for a knockout blow. They didn’t force Eoin Murphy into a save because they didn’t choose to work the sliotar in that far. Psychologists might have diagnosed a slight fear, eminently understandable in the circumstances, when it came to applying the coup de grace against the team that’s won six of the last seven All-Irelands and really going to town on them, but that’s froth and bubbles now. Anyway, why waste time trying to punch the other guy’s lights out when you can pinprick him to death with points from 50 metres? The mindset will need to be more expansive tomorrow — the 0-19 that beat Kilkenny will hardly beat Dublin — and it will be.

Cork have some players performing really well and some players not far off performing really well. Into the latter category falls Conor Lehane, who disappointed against Limerick but a fortnight ago was two slightly more accurate shots away from having a highly productive afternoon.

Daniel Kearney’s mobility was too much for Kilkenny’s midfield. Seamus Harnedy continues to serve as a focal point up front, one who complements his ball-winning with point-scoring. And Anthony Nash’s double save from the retaken penalty was stunning, not only for the way in which, slightly wrong-footed, he got his stick to the initial shot but also for the speed with which he sprang up to foil Tommy Walsh’s follow-up.

The game demonstrated too that the lessons of last year’s league final had been digested. In a recent interview JBM spoke with typical generosity of his admiration for Kilkenny’s forthright defending and his desire for Cork to emulate them.

Shane O’Neill was doing that in spades a fortnight ago, and long before the incident with Eoin Larkin as well.

The cute-hoor fraternity will opt for Cork here. The romantics will go for Dublin. An element of wishful thinking motivates inhabitants of the latter camp, not least because of the whole Carpe Diem syndrome. Dublin — and Limerick next week — will have other chances of reaching an All-Ireland final in the coming years, but as provincial champions they’ll never have better chances. Tide, affairs, men, etc.

The hiatus since the Leinster final is a worry but not a major one. After five matches on successive weekends the break arrived at the optimum moment. Dublin weren’t tired on July 7, partly because they didn’t listen to any of the nonsense telling them they might or should be. They won’t be stale tomorrow because they’ve adopted the same attitude, although the danger they may stagger out of the traps while Cork bomb out, like one of their manager’s better greyhounds, is clear and present. Tipperary’s slow start in 2008 as provincial champions against a Waterford team who’d built up a head of steam through the back door remains the ultimate cautionary tale in this regard.

In the interim they’ve had time for work, rest and play. Charlie Chawke threw a night for them in his Goat hostelry the Tuesday after the Leinster final but half of the Dublin lads preferred an evening in the gym.

Last Tuesday week was their first meeting after the identity of tomorrow’s opponents became known. That was the moment they switched to Code Red.

They have athletes and they have hurlers and they have athletes who can hurl. Above all, they’ve taken on board the big lesson of 2012: the first step is to breathe, not to analyse. In retrospect TJ Reid’s leveller first time around in Portlaoise was a blessing. And the configuration of Croke Park allows them to put the ball into space in front of Paul Ryan, a top-of-the-ground hurler dry summers were made for, and Dotsie O’Callaghan for the pair to latch onto and turn with. And Danny Sutcliffe, like Conor Lehane, is due a big display.

So how could you have gone for a county that hasn’t beaten Cork in the championship since forever, you feckin’ langer??’ (Potential question from victorious but affronted Corkonian at 5pm tomorrow.)

Not easily, that’s true. But it’s no leap of faith either. The gospel for both semi-finals is taken from the Book of Form, and that worthy volume is currently calling the All-Ireland race a four-way dead heat, as are the bookies. In which case, the Leinster champions are perfectly entitled to the vote.

Same four words as when they met Galway last month. Dublin can win this.