Luke Connolly: 'The time has come where we need to show something for our careers'

Cork's Luke Connolly celebrates scoring a goal against Dublin in the Super 8s last year. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

“There is a group of us there who have been around long enough and the time has come for us to show something for our inter-county careers,” says Luke Connolly, somewhat bluntly, when asked if his medal collection with Cork extends beyond the piece of Division 3 silverware he has yet to physically pocket.

Connolly has been part of the Cork set-up since 2015, making his debut when introduced as a 66th-minute sub at the end of the county’s opening round league win over Dublin that season.

Almost six years on and he is still waiting to get his hands on a Munster medal.

“I have a handful of McGrath Cups, if we want to go that far,” he quips, knowing full well that mention of the pre-season competition highlights just how barren the last couple of years have been for Cork football.

“For the likes of Mark Collins, Kevin O’Driscoll, myself, the time has come where we need to show something for our inter-county careers. You want to have something in your back pocket when you look back on your career.”

Collins does in fact have a Munster medal in his possession, but that was all of eight years ago and the Castlehaven forward was only starting out on his inter-county journey at the time. Indeed, bar Collins and Connolly’s Nemo clubmate Paul Kerrigan, no other member of Ronan McCarthy’s panel is the owner of a senior provincial medal.

It is Tipperary who stand in the way of this rather damning statistic being corrected on Sunday, with Connolly recalling the dark, dark mood in the Cork dressing-room after the Premier County scored a shock win over the Rebels in the 2016 Munster semi-final.

He was an unused sub that afternoon in Thurles, his non-involvement highlighting the extent to which he has risen in the pecking order in recent years.

His omission from the first 15 for the Kerry game certainly raised a few eyebrows, so much so that McCarthy was asked afterward if Connolly had been carrying an injury which precluded him from starting.

The 28-year-old has no problem admitting he was disappointed to be left out of the team. But sulk he did not. Mentally, a razor-sharp focus was maintained. Connolly knew he could make a contribution when, rather than if, he was introduced.

Sprung on the three-quarter hour mark, his willingness and determination to take aim at Shane Ryan’s posts stood in contrast to the endless sequences of lateral handpassing which blighted the Munster semi-final.

“So nonchalant,” said Kevin McStay on RTÉ match commentary when Connolly split the posts with the outside of the right boot — his second attempt from play after being introduced — on 67 minutes.

He’d add two mammoth frees in extra-time and it was his miscued effort that dropped into the arms of Mark Keane for the deciding goal.

As backroom team member and former Munster rugby player Johnny Holland remarked to him afterwards, he’ll never have a more celebrated miss than that last kick.

“I felt I had the hot hand at that stage and with the way the breeze was, when I got in that position, I thought, shoot. I didn’t think anything else.

“If you look at the build-up to Mark’s goal, Paul Ring is involved, Paul Kerrigan is involved, Michael Hurley is involved, Tadhg Corkery makes a big challenge on the ground to win the ball back, and it is Damien Gore who passes out to me. None of those players started, neither did Mark Keane.

At this level, it is about contribution, it is not about egos.

"As much as I was disappointed [at not starting], I knew I had a role to play, as did every other player.”

Reflecting on the pair of frees he converted, Connolly picked out the first, kicked into the Blackrock end in the first period of extra-time, as the more important and the more difficult.

“The second one, I had a nice breeze behind me. The first one only crept over off the crossbar. I let out a yell after it, that one meant a little bit more. And going into half-time in extra-time, it kept us within arm’s length.

“It was just one of those days where everything I kicked off the ground went exactly where I wanted it to. Pride would say I am able to kick them week in, week out, but there are days when they don’t go over.

“Mark Collins, too, kicked very important frees. Killian O’Hanlon, also, kicked two fantastic ones off the floor.”

Having been greeted by waving flags and car horns beeping as they departed Páirc Uí Chaoimh, players then made the short journey to the Rochestown Park Hotel for the post-match meal.

Connolly said it was most apt that the group, who stuck with Cork football through the bad times and worse, were able to enjoy each other’s company after their first sit-up-and-take-notice-of-us victory.

Although he did add “it would have been the one night where the footballers would have been celebrated on a night out as opposed to being lambasted”.

Having finally succeeded in catching a big fish, the next step is to secure Cork a first All-Ireland semi-final appearance in eight years.

Not wanting to peer beyond Sunday, he describes the short road to an All-Ireland final and Sam Maguire as “the elephant in the room”.

“The theme of last year was we had a load of moral victories. We put up good performances against good teams and it was, ‘oh, in fairness to Cork, they put it up to Dublin and were in the game’. As good as that can be to hear, it is almost kind of an insult too given the size of this county.

“The Kerry win is a massive step in the right direction to being regarded as a team who can get big results.

We have got one monkey off the back. Now, it’s time to maintain it.