‘All for one and one for all,’ the Rebel mantra
The gathered scribes wait patiently outside the dressing rooms, Horgan, though, is in no hurry to converse. With the hurley in hand, the Cork forward proceeds to bounce the sliothar off the wall next to the main stand.
There he remains for at least five minutes, a picture of contentment.
Eventually, the 26-year old ambles down to the print media scrum, at pains to stress the selfless role he has adopted this summer. This Cork forward unit, he adds, has no time for individuals.
Take the replay win over Waterford — Conor Lehane, Seamus Harnedy and Horgan making a combined 15 plays which transferred to 10 points.
In the first-half alone, Cork’s forward unit made 31 plays which yielded a tally of 0-16. The Rebels finished with 10 different names on the scoresheet.
“If you need to run into space to create it for someone else, that’s the type of team we’re becoming,” says Horgan.
“We all want to win together, it’s not good everyone coming off the field after being beaten and you could have done one thing better. That’s what the team is after becoming, everyone on the team wants to help each other. No matter who gets the scores, we’re either going to win together or lose together. I think fellas realise that.
“We’re all doing what we can for the team. I think fellas are coming to training knowing they have to improve before they go home and that’s what’s happening. On match days, we’re playing really well. We’re capable of playing like that, we have been for the last two or three years. I think we’re just showing a level of consistency now that we can put games back-to-back.
“We’ve played three good games now and progressed in each one.”
Their last outing ended an eight-year barren spell at provincial level, a first senior medal of any description for the vast majority of this group.
“It’s huge [to win a medal],” continued Horgan. “We were after being in a lot of finals but we just couldn’t get over the line. We played well in a lot of games, but winning gives you that bit of confidence. In the Munster final, I think we showed how good we were when things opened up in the second-half.
“We had to win that game. We had to do something to get a bit of silverware. I was never on a Cork senior team that had won a trophy so it was good to see all the supporters coming onto the field. I lost where I was on the field, there were so many people there. It was just brilliant to see [Pa Cronin] lifting the cup. From then on, it means nothing to us because we want something bigger. We had the night and we enjoyed it, but since then it’s been trying to be 100% for Tipp.
“Any game we’ve played against them in the last couple of years has been high-scoring and free-flowing. There has been nothing in it and it’ll be no different on Sunday. That’s just the way it is, two teams going at it.”
Central to the continued rise of Cork’s graph has been the fresh blood injected by Jimmy Barry-Murphy. Horgan singles out forward colleague Alan Cadogan for particular praise.
“We started off more or less as a new panel last year and fellas are getting fitter and stronger. The footballers coming along too made us a strong-looking team and I think management are doing a great job.”
He added: “Last year, it was Séamie Harnedy, this year it has been Alan Cadogan. It’s good every year to get someone like that coming onto the team. He’s a real threat, we’ve really good forwards now and unbelievable backs. If you can get one or two players coming on like that every year, you’ll have a solid team. We’re all young and we’re all eager to play.”
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