Doubts remain over Cork attitude, says Fitzgibbon

Darragh Fitzgibbon has acknowledged that while there’s no question about the talent of the Cork hurlers, their “work-rate and attitude” has been a problem at key times.

The former All-Star midfielder offered a frank summary of the state of play for Cork, who have exited the last three All-Ireland Championship campaigns in disappointing fashion.

They coughed up leads and were ultimately beaten by both Waterford and Limerick in the 2017 and 2018 All-Ireland semi-finals, while Kilkenny came from two points down at half-time in this year’s quarter-final tie to advance.

Fitzgibbon, who played and scored in that loss to the Cats, said the most frustrating thing about the defeat was that the Rebels were essentially outfought.

“If you can lose and say you put everything into it, then you can throw your hand up and say, ‘Well, look, fair play’ (to the winner), but when you have those question marks over you, they are frustrating,” said Fitzgibbon.

The bigger picture is an apparent trend of under-performance in season-defining games at Croke Park.

Fitzgibbon initially denied that any ‘trend’ is at play though admitted that Cork teams, over many years and stretching back to the underage grades, haven’t delivered when expected to.

Asked if he feels people are now questioning Cork’s character, the Charleville man nodded. “Definitely, definitely. Our talent will never be questioned but our work-rate and our attitude probably would raise a few question marks.

And they are a few of the things we have talked about early on (in pre-season), definitely we’ll get into that as the year progresses. But those are things we feel we can put right.

It is easier to put right attitude and work-rate than it is if you don’t have the talent.

Fitzgibbon was part of a Cork minor side that struck 15 wides and lost a Munster semi-final in 2015 while a late Tipperary goal denied Fitzgibbon and the Cork U21s in the 2018 All-Ireland final.

“It is a thing that has kind of crept up on us,” said Fitzgibbon. “The losses we have experienced, even at underage in minor and U21, we probably went in as the team that had the most talent and we lost those games through work-rate and attitude and just being put on a pedestal that we were better than these guys.

There has been a lot of hurt for fellas my age, like Mark Coleman, Shane Kingston, Robbie O’Flynn, Tim O’Mahony, all these guys. We would have been favourites to win minor and U21s and we never got over the line in any of those years.

On this year’s senior loss to Kilkenny, Fitzgibbon said the memory of it still stings.

“We looked to be in a good position at half-time. Like the previous two years, we had put ourselves in a good position to win the game and we didn’t get over the line. I don’t think it is a fear of getting over the line or anything, it is just, I suppose, those purple patches teams get. Every team gets a purple patch in a match and we didn’t deal with them in those three games, in those three years, as well as we could have.

“It has been a long couple of months thinking about what people have been saying about us and I think us all, as a group, we are looking forward to getting back and righting the wrongs of what happened the last couple of years.”

Kieran Kingston is back for a second spell as manager having handed Fitzgibbon and a number of rising stars their debuts in the summer of 2017. Fitzgibbon said that despite their setbacks, Cork remain in a position to push on and challenge for that elusive All-Ireland.

“You saw in 2018, Tipp didn’t even get out of Munster and in 2019 they went on and won the All-Ireland,” said the UCC student. “That gives you confidence as a group that anything is possible. We’ve won Munster championships in 2017 and 2018 so we have won silverware.

"We know we can win an All-Ireland but then the break of a ball either way in a game can change your whole Championship as well. You’re also playing four of the six weekends in May and June. I don’t know, we feel that we’ll be there or thereabouts but I suppose a lot of work has to be done before we’ll play in May.”

Darragh Fitzgibbon was speaking at the launch of the 2020 Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon, Sigerson, and Higher Education championships. Electric Ireland’s First Class Rivals platform in 2020 aims to celebrate the unexpected alliances formed when county rivals, united by their college, come and play together in pursuit of one common goal.