Pa Horgan: Cork must muscle up

Cork must beef up if they are to contend with Kilkenny and win an All-Ireland title, claims Pa Horgan.

The 2013 All-Star believes the county have to adopt a “if you can’t beat them, join them” philosophy if they are to overcome the Cats again, like they did in the All-Ireland quarter-final two years ago.

“I just think fellas are seen as good hurlers and all that, but we probably have to get a bit stronger. If you look at the way Kilkenny tackle and hit, that wears teams out.

“If you can withstand that and bring your hurling after that, then you might stand a chance.

“If you go down the line of just being a lovely, skilful team, one of the days you’re going to get blown away by the likes of Kilkenny or Tipp and it just won’t work.

“Fellas are running around pitches for months and one hit and they’re down on their knees, breathless.

“It’s a different fitness. That’s what Kilkenny bring to everything. They hit so hard and often, that the running is taken out of fellas and they’re not able to run after it. It’s just getting your body in shape to withstand it.” As ever, Kilkenny are the barometer but Horgan maintains teams like Cork are not obsessed with them.

“No, the thing with us like is once a year for the last couple of years, we’ve been disappointing, one game. Every other game you could say we were brilliant. Kilkenny don’t do that.

“Their worst is very good. And other than that, they are excellent.

“That’s the thing we’ll have to try to get into our game, that when we go out, we are never bad. That at least we still compete. The worst they will ever play, they’ll be in the game with five minutes to go and that’s the worst they ever have and that’s the type of game we have to bring and not just be over at half-time.”

Cork’s 2015 season ended with a disappointing All-Ireland quarter-final showing against Galway but Horgan isn’t down in the mouth about their prospects.

“We’re not bad,” he says simply.

At the same time, he witnessed some unacceptable criticism of some of his team-mates, such as Damien Cahalane. “To be honest, I couldn’t care less, because it’s the same people. If you do something well the next week, they will be your best friends. There is no room for it obviously and I hate seeing it. I hate seeing it happen to others.

“I couldn’t care less what people have to say about me and I am sure whoever it has happened to on our team is the same: they don’t care either.

“The people that say those things on social media aren’t the people who are out training four, five or six nights a week, giving everything they have to do their best for their county. I’d say fellas are strong enough to just push that (social media abuse) aside and move on.

“It’s really annoying when you see fellas nearly crying leaving training. They can hardly move. Then to see that happening after probably one mistake out of a whole match.

“Everyone makes mistakes. I don’t think there is a place for it anyway. That’s when they’ll say it... when no-one can say anything back to them. It’s wrong but sure it’s going to be there and I think fellas are strong enough to deal with it.”

Getting to work with Kieran Kingston again as manager is something that buoys Horgan.

“It’s a bit of a boost getting somebody new even though the last lads were brilliant. He’s really good. The time he coached us, you knew even then he was serious about what he does and he doesn’t do things by halves. He does everything to the highest level and it’s brilliant. If the manager is doing that, you have to get behind him and do everything you can for him.”

Going beyond Munster is Horgan’s aim for Cork but he will have other objectives in 2016: guiding Glen Rovers to a first county title in 26 years in October has given him a taste for more.

“The day after, we were talking about it, and like we’d always say, ‘look, just give us one and we’ll be happy,’ but the day after, fellas are saying, ‘we’ll have to do it again like,’ do you know? That’s the way it was.

“I was actually texting one of the players about half eight the next morning and he was saying the same, ‘we have to do it again.’ We are really serious about what we do there and just try to win as much as we can.”