Ruffled Rebels up for a fight
Little heed was paid to talk concerning the lack of heart and fighting spirit within Brian Cuthbert’s panel. Par for the course, really.
What grated Collins was talk from earlier in the year writing off this Cork team following the retirement of six high-profile players, added to Ciarán Sheehan’s departure to Australia.
The Rebels were no longer perceived as September contenders, cast into a phase of rebuilding before a single ball had been kicked in earnest. Where would the leaders emerge from? Who would replace Canty, Kissane and O’Neill? Was the quality even there to replace these stellar Cork servants? It was a damning indictment of the remaining group, says Collins.
And so forget the semi-final collapse to Dublin, for the Cork footballers had already proven themselves by the time they coughed up a 10-point interval advantage against the All-Ireland champions — victories over Kerry, Derry, Kildare and the aforementioned Dubs recorded en route to finishing top of the league table.
Impressive results for a team devoid of leaders.
“After the seven lads departing, a lot was said about those who were left. We were written off as championship contenders,” recalls Collins.
“We came together and we decided we had to prove the doubters wrong. We are a close-knit bunch and we really wanted to do it for each other as much as we wanted to prove wrong those on the outside. The likes of Paddy Kelly and Paul Kerrigan hadn’t gone anywhere. We still have leaders and influential players. There is no shortage on that front.
“Given the manner in which we were written off, it was a big plus to end up finishing top of the Division 1 league table. The second half against Dublin was a nightmare, but in the first half we played super football and there were a lot of positives to be taken from it.”
Having failed to establish himself during Conor Counihan’s reign, the Castlehaven forward has been a constant in Cuthbert’s plans this year, starting all eight league fixtures. The 24-year-old accepts it was high-time he stood up to be counted.
“In my opinion, I really had to step up and prove myself. As a team, we have to do the same. We have had success at minor and U21, but we’ve yet to prove ourselves at senior. This is a real step-up this year. If Cork are to be successful, there are a group of us around the 23, 24 age mark that have to push on.”
Quite noticeable has been the brand of football employed under Cuthbert, a strong emphasis on open, attacking play. Collins praised the management for opting against the defensive approach adopted by so many other counties. Terribly easy, he insists, to buy into a system that every player wants to move forward with, no pun intended.
“It is very enjoyable as a forward to be a part of a team that operates with such an attacking mentality. I love good quick ball. When Brian came in at the start of the year, that is the way he wanted to play: move the ball out of defence as fast as we could because we do have very dangerous forwards inside. He thought if we could get a plentiful supply of ball into them, they would do damage.
“You are getting the ball in space and you’re allowed express yourself. We forwards still have responsibilities to help the defence. We know if we leave them open, they will be under pressure.
“I have heard people say our second-half collapse against Dublin was tied to our brand of football. Nonsense. Dublin totally blew us out of the water and nothing went right for us. They came in waves and no matter what we did in the second half, we weren’t going to stop them.”
The sole negative of the free-flowing style witnessed this spring has been the cementing of Cork’s ‘nice footballers’ tag. Stitching into their game a level of aggression was a key priority during the 11-week lay-off.
“Teams have brought in this nastiness to their game over the years and have been successful with it. The prime example would be Mayo. Their forwards have become the best defenders in the country as forwards. That is something Brian has worked on that we do have to bring a certain level of meanness to our attack and that we don’t let the opposition out as easy as we have. We have worked on our aggression.”
And this evening’s opponents? “They have had a lot of underage success and are building. I remember in 2009 we were unbelievably lucky to beat them in the Munster U21 final. Noel Galvin popped up to net a last-minute goal. From that they won an All-Ireland minor and have been fostering players from the minor to senior grade. We know they are going to be a test.”
Cork football selector Ronan McCarthy pores over the main issues facing the Rebels ahead of their Munster championship opener this evening.
“They have had some degree of minor and U21 success. They are probably waiting for all that to come together and snowball into a senior victory. That can’t be our focus. Our focus has to be on us. I was involved with a Cork team that lost to Clare in the 1997 Munster championship. We had never trained as hard as a group as we did for that game. You can target this game or that game or say we still want to be here in August or September. That is all irrelevant. We lost that afternoon and our season ended in June. Tipperary came down here to Pairc Ui Rinn and beat us in the McGrath Cup last year. Your guard must always be up.”
“It is a case of swings and roundabouts. If they play a game on Sunday with one code it affects what they can do the following week while training with the other code. The replay against Waterford we could have done without. I have no doubt later this summer we will have a replay and we will have back-to-back matches and the hurlers will have to do without the three. I think when you sit down at the start of the year and know you will have dual players in your squad this is part of the territory.”
“We had been beaten in a similar fashion by Mayo in Castlebar. We didn’t dwell on that either. I do believe we will be the better for it and it will stand to us later in the year. Listening to people say the team had no heart was nonsense. You ask someone at half-time in that match did Cork have heart and they would have said yes. 35 minutes later we didn’t have any.
“We will do our talking on the field.”
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