Paul Kerrigan: After a beating like that, you question everything

The Cork footballers have often found praise hard to come by.

When they’re winning, they should be winning more – ‘only’ winning one All-Ireland in the successful period at the end of the 2000s and early 2010s was deemed a failure in some quarters – while the fallow periods are judged even more harshly.

Last Sunday was something else entirely, though. It’s entirely possible the 4-25 to 3-10 loss to Roscommon in Páirc Uí Rinn was the county’s biggest senior football loss since the 20-point reversal against Kerry in the 1938 Munster final. Having trailed by nine points at half-time, Cork ‘lost’ the first 20 minutes of the second-half by 2-8 to 1-0. Little wonder then, captain Paul Kerrigan wasn’t in the mood for much interaction in the immediate aftermath, while acknowledging any criticism was justified in the wake of an “unacceptable” display.

“Monday is my quiet day in school [Coláiste Chríost Rí] with the exams as well, so I was in and out of there, to be honest,” he says.

“I presume fellas are going to be questioned. I’m not online or anything, but people are probably right to abuse fellas after that. We deserve every bit of criticism we get after that. You can hide from it or face up to it, whatever you want, but fellas are going to know it’s there, whether they’re reading it or not.

“First things first, you have to look at yourself. It was hard coming off the field, it was even harder getting up yesterday morning and having to look at yourself in the mirror.

“There’s nobody hurting more than us, it was terrible, probably the worst-ever performance.”

That’s not just paying lip-service to a disgruntled set of supporters, either. Soul-searching was plentiful.

“You question everything,” Kerrigan says. “You question why you’re even doing it, ‘Am I doing the right stuff? Am I doing enough of the right stuff? Do I want it badly enough?’. It makes you feel you’re fairly insignificant. You think you’re putting your life on hold for this, but then you’re thinking, ‘I mightn’t be doing the right stuff at all’.

“You question everything. It’s not acceptable for a Cork team to lose like that at home, and to concede so much as well. If it was hurling, you’d be saying it was a big score.We had a few fellas on the bench carrying injuries too, but they’re only all excuses. It was only the second time I’ve lost in the league at Páirc Uí Rinn. Kildare in 2013 was the first.

“That wasn’t a loss, that was a hammering. It’s just unacceptable.”

As captain, Kerrigan feels a greater responsibility to put a stop to the slide. I don’t put myself up on a pedestal but I don’t want to be remembered for that either,” he says.

“We had a recovery session on Sunday and there wasn’t many fellas talking to each other – not because they were odd with each other but just because they had nothing to say. You’d be just staring into space, questioning everything. You’ve seen the lads, fellas aren’t bad players and you’re just wondering what happened.

“Between league and championship you could only have 15 competitive games a year. We’ve been fairly well beaten in our last two, two out of our first three.

“Obviously, it’s better that it happens now than in a Munster final. It’s consistently after happening and fellas will be down so we have to put a stop to it now.”

It is an understatement, however, to point out there are easier places to find your game than against Dublin in Croke Park.

“If we perform well, there’s probably no guarantee we can beat them either, like Monaghan last week,” Kerrigan says.

“If you can’t get up for playing in Croke Park, you might as well forget it. We’re probably going to have to change the way we play a bit, if you go six on six against the Dubs’ forwards, forget it.”

If the Cork attack is under-manned due to the deployment of a sweeper or two, it puts more pressure on to use the possession they are supplied with. In that regard, they have a solitary positive to take from last week in the performance of full-forward Peter Kelleher, who scored two goals.

“He’s a very good young fella, he puts his head down and works hard,” Kerrigan says.

“It was a positive, to be fair, and I thought Luke Connolly contributed a bit too, in fairness, and Ian Maguire, three young fellas were probably three of our better players.

“That is a positive and I think we need more of those fellas that age pushing us. We obviously need more leadership from the likes of me and my age-group, but those younger fellas are going to have to take it to the next level as well.

“At two ends of the spectrum, we definitely need to step it up. We’re going to have to put a bit of pride into our jersey and ourselves.”