‘Sure what can you do?’
There’s one show he hasn’t watched since he featured in it on September 8, though.
“I didn’t bother. I’d only be bogging myself down so I left it off to be honest,” he said of the drawn All-Ireland hurling final with Clare, an experience he sums up in one word.
“Class. The lads ran out onto the field and I was six or seven back and I heard the noise before I saw anything. You know you’re there then.
“You’re looking around, not one seat empty, you’re taking in the atmosphere for five minutes, and then you’re down to business. Management was on about it. They had noise on in the background when we were training, but nothing prepares you for what it’s like when you get out there. It’s completely different.”
Were nerves a factor for Cork?
“Sure if you’re not nervous for that, there’s something wrong with you. I slept well the night before and I’d done my own thing the week before the match, so I wasn’t a ball of nerves.
“I shared with Daniel [Kearney], I know him since I’m 10 or 11. He’d wear you out, so I slept like a log. It was definitely the most mentally draining game, I don’t know about physically draining because I’m in the corner, if you were out around the middle of the field, you’d be shattered altogether. I was wrecked after it but you’d be like that after every championship game.
“If you don’t have a small bit of nerves, there’s no point showing up. You get it out of your system in the warm-up, but you want to enjoy yourself as well. You’re not going to enjoy yourself if you’re nervous.”
Still, it can’t have been too enjoyable to have Clare dominate the first half?
“We were haunted to still be in it at half-time. We didn’t turn up and the lads played very well. The lads [management] gave us plenty of confidence in the dressing room, told us to keep working away, keep plugging away. Every team will have a purple patch, and we managed to work ourselves into the game.”
Talking of players going up and down the field, the Cork keeper...
“Nash on the way back is like a guy on a Honda 50 coming back, he’s coming at a ferocious pace and he’s out of breath when he gets back. You’re wasting your time trying to talk to him. He’s always in your ear, though. You’d be sick of him at some stages telling you what you’re doing right and doing wrong. He’s very good in that sense.”
Was he surprised by Clare tactics? The lack of a sweeper?
“Everyone thought they’d play a sweeper and they didn’t, 15 on 15, but you have to be prepared for that. That’s normal hurling. They might play a sweeper but you have to be prepared for anything. If I was a sweeper I’d be comfortable enough, I’ve done it in matches and training, but it’s their choice and you have to react to it.”
The reaction to the draw was simple, he says.
“I was shattered. Even if you didn’t play you’re going up at 1pm on the Saturday, up late Sunday night, and it was 4pm when I got back on Monday. Three days.
“Anti-climax was a word I used 20 times on the Sunday night, it was the only way to describe it. The banquet was dead, I’d feel sorry for anyone who paid €100 to go to it. Sickened. Plate of roast beef in front of them. Dead.
“Win or lose, you’re prepared for the year to be finished. Nobody saw the draw coming, it must have been 10 or 12/1 so nobody saw that coming. I got home and my father was on the couch watching The Sunday Game. Sure what can you do?
“It would have been robbery if we’d won, to be fair. We led for the first time after 71 minutes. Clare were the better team for the vast majority of the match but there’s nothing sweeter than a one-point victory when you don’t deserve it.”
When they went back training on the Friday night some players had their heads down, he says: “But then we realised it was another All-Ireland final three weeks later, and you might never get that chance again so anything the lads wanted, you’d just do it.
“It’s normal to drop your heads after a game like that, I’d be surprised if some of the Clare heads were down for a while after it, but then you just get straight back into it. You’ve no other choice.”
Is there more in Cork? He hopes so. Anything to avoid a repeat of the last few minutes of the drawn game.
“We’d hope we have more in us, anyway. I’ve no doubt Clare wouldn’t be happy with how some things went for them so they feel they have more in them but we’d hope to play better anyway.
“I was on my own 45 for Hoggy’s score.
“If ever a score deserved to win an All-Ireland it was that one — he kind of pushed it, no backswing, I don’t know how he got the power into it.
“Domhnall O’Donovan’s point in fairness — I’d say he hasn’t scored too many points in his lifetime, but he did it. Good players do it when it’s needed. I was praying for the whistle but if it was the other way around he’d have probably given us the 30 seconds, you know how refs are going to be.”
If O’Sullivan had been in O’Donovan’s position, a corner-back with the All-Ireland at his mercy...
“I’d have clung that, no bother at all. No hassle.”
And off he goes.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
