Nemo Rangers prepare to travel familiar Munster road
Nineteen Cork SFC titles have been converted into 15 Munster championship crowns and seven All- Irelands, and a win against Stradbally last week kick-started the latest quest to build on domestic success.
Tomorrow they face Killarney Legion in Páirc Uí Rinn (2pm). This year’s title was the city club’s first since 2010 and one for which captain Paul Kerrigan praises some of their lesser-heralded players.
“We used 16 in the first-round game against Ilen Rovers,” he says, “then four of us were away with Cork and we had four injuries, the intermediates were training separately so you might have only had eight at training.
“The likes of Rashers (Ciarán O’Shea), Aidan O’Reilly, Alan Cronin, David O’Donovan, there was a real cut in them. They didn’t want forwards scoring off them and no team really did, it was definitely something I noticed.
“It puts pressure on the forwards then when the backs are holding up their end of the bargain. We missed a load of fellas at various stages, in the county final replay we were without Luke (Connolly) and Barry (O’Driscoll), two fellas who have played with Cork and nobody batted an eyelid.” Injuries were a recurring theme during the year, but more than once the squad depth was illustrated.
“In the half-back line, Brian O’Regan was out for the year, then Stephen Cronin had been playing with Cork and he got injured but we still had Tomás (Ó Sé) to play there,” Kerrigan says.
“There was just a kind of a determination that we were going to get it done no matter what. Take Dylan (Mehigan), for example. His last three years as a footballer have been as good as any three years that he has played. You talk about constantly evolving, he’s 32 or 33 but he’s as fit as anyone he has speed, power, workrate. We’re lucky, obviously I’m captain but there are older fellas than me and they set a very good example, the likes of Dylan, Willie Morgan, Ciarán.
“Rashers was our man-marker through the 2000s, he would have marked Colm Cooper in 2010. He did his cruciate and smashed his kneecap, he was told he’d never run properly again, even up to last year you’d be wondering if he was going to stay on, but this year he has been our best player at the back, a real leader.” If Kerrigan has one regret this year, it is regarding Cork’s intercounty campaign. He is able to reflect on the positives but the exit from the championship against Kildare still rankles.
“I really enjoyed aspects of this year – up until 15 minutes to go in the Munster final it was very enjoyable,” he says.
“Usually, I hate the mini-pre-season before championship but I felt we built very well going into the Kerry game and we were one kick away from winning there.
“In the Kildare game, I thought we as players really let ourselves down. We just didn’t perform, we let them run over us. It wasn’t good enough, probably my biggest regret playing with Cork. It was just terrible.”
Being captain of such a group was and is a source of pride for Kerrigan, especially as his father Jimmy was also a successful skipper.
“He captained them to an All-Ireland Club, we’ve the picture up at home, it’s memorable because they actually wore Douglas jerseys in the final against Walterstown,” he says.
“People were asking if I wrote a speech, I didn’t really but it’s something you’d be thinking about for years and years. My dad was captain, Steven O’Brien was captain for the All-Ireland Club in 1994, Colin was captain in 2003, I played under all of them, Martin (Cronin), Maurice (McCarthy), (Niall) Geary, Brían (Morgan), all very good captains. To do it yourself is a huge honour, it’s unreal.”
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