PM O’Sullivan: Are Cork taking a different path to end longest All-Ireland drought?

Cork captain Ben O'Connor leaves Heuston station with the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2004. Another season without the trophy would mean Cork hurling’s longest famine. Picture: INPHO/Andrew Paton

The past is a noisy country in Cork GAA, that implacable hum where expectation meets impatience.

This weekend, the dial turns. Background noise will rise. Way of things. Cork expects.

Their NHL campaign opens in Páirc Uí Rinn on Sunday afternoon, Waterford the visitors. Last October’s Munster semi-final, when Cork flopped in the face of Déise intent and vigour, means murmurings.

While this league may well end up, due to context, an utterly phoney war, the hosts seek the proverbial marker in two days’ time. They must demonstrate that the phrase ‘soft touches’ applies solely to their ball control.

Then you have the group’s new situation. Last winter, management under Kieran Kingston gritted collective teeth and oversaw a clearout. Some of the departures (Stephen McDonnell, Anthony Nash, Aidan Walsh) could be filed as ‘over 30’. Even so, Walsh recently admitted wishing to remain.

Other departures (Christopher Joyce, Conor Lehane) looked different. Both men turn 29 in 2021. Implicit avowal? A different path to the county’s 31st senior title.

I love Lehane’s skill but too often he seemed more sleeper agent than daylight attacker.

But why the rising hum, intriguing opener aside? Milestones, boy. Milestones are where temporary markers become permanent history.

The last decade saw plenty traffic. Back in 2017, there came hubbub about Cork’s famine between 1954 and 1966, those 12 seasons. People had a loose sense this span represented the longest spell without a senior title.

Not so. But no matter, at the time. That the most recent senior title lay in 2005 sharpened 2017’s doings. Having won Munster, Cork appeared nicely set. But Waterford arrived with an All-Ireland semi-final ambush — 12 seasons ribboned into 13 seasons.

2019 granted Cork a last chance to succeed in that decade. This feat had been achieved every decade since 1890, the county’s inaugural senior All-Ireland. Kilkenny clipped this possibility in a quarter-final. Twelve decades sagged into zero.

2021 shimmers in near distance. Cork’s longest barren spell transpired, we now realise, between 1903 and 1919. So 2005 plus 16 seasons sharpens this summer’s doings in quite lethal degree.

Will 16 seasons ribbon into 17 seasons? That blade gleams.

GLORY DAYS: Ben O’Connor raises the Liam MacCarthy Cup at Cork’s homecoming in 2004. Picture: Morgan Treacy

Ruefulness and anxiety are not signature Cork emotions. There is fine reason for this truth, given the county’s immense GAA history. Into the bargain, they should have won 2013’s drawn All-Ireland final with Clare. If Limerick had been beaten, as per most scenarios, in 2018’s All-Ireland semi-final, Cork would have taken a tired Galway side.

The Rebels got seriously near during the 2010s, as three Munster titles attest. Maybe they are still near, even though bookmakers place them fifth in betting, at 10-1. But Cork’s defence, for the most part, is still a desperation in progress. Settling men at full-back and centre-back heads the worklist.

The league, whatever markers laid, whatever experiments, remains but a prelude. Cork getting drawn against Limerick in this summer’s Munster semi-final? A doozer named McCoy. The All-Ireland champions harbour designs not just on 2021 but on the 2020s.

There is an odd pressure on the challengers. Speaking last month, Cork defender Colm Spillane noted: “Since 2017, when we have played well and up to the performance levels we’d be happy with, we would fancy ourselves to beat any team. We probably have the best record against Limerick, compared to any other team, over the last three or four years.”

I wonder about this perspective. Players must nerve themselves for battle and I like Spillane, his doughtiness. But the last three seasons look rather different from a sharper angle. The last three seasons, from this angle, involved Cork choking as a championship cookie crumbled. Seem harsh? Here is a roster.

Happened in 2018, when a clear winning position against Limerick in that All-Ireland semi-final got squandered.

Happened in 2019, when a promising first half against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final tapered into capitulation. Happened in 2020, when a Patrick Horgan free in the 59th minute against Tipperary in a second-round qualifier put Cork a point up, only for Tipp to power away into four-point victory.

There is, in short, a psychological issue as well as a playing issue. Could this brittleness be partly rooted in the mid-2000s, rooted in varieties of delusion about that period?

A sense of entitlement definitely entered Cork hurling at that juncture.

Various autobiographies by players pinpoint 2006’s defeat to Kilkenny as a hinge. The common note? Varieties of excuse. Yet you could argue with equal force Cork did well to harvest those two titles in 2004 and 2005.

Think about it. 2004: Back door All-Ireland against a Kilkenny side husked by their long and winding road after needless defeat to Wexford via a dreadful team selection.

2005: Handy All-Ireland against a Galway side enervated after their tumultuous All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny.

The reality is that Cork have not possessed a great hurling team in over 40 years. The three in a row men of 1978 count as true benchmark, not the 2005 crew.

Delusion… Think about it. Back in 2005, there was open opinion locally that Cork would stack at least three in a row (and quite possibly four in a row) because Kilkenny would not be back right until 2007 at the earliest.

Would too many have been surprised if the Cork hurlers had released a Christmas 2005 fundraising record, drawing on that old Coca-Cola ad? Remember it? The New Seekers, a video of children on a hill.

Easy to imagine, back then, serried Rebels in festive red belting out a chorus: ‘We’d like to teach the world to hurl!’

Such was the vibe, the presumption, even in raw defeat. John Gardiner appeared for your standard interview after the 2006 senior final. He was disappointed, naturally, but unbowed. Moral drawn? Gardiner stated Cork and Kilkenny would “continue to dominate”.

Sixteen seasons and counting, in a rising hum.

Cork Championship matches without an All-Ireland medal winner

The Cork team in their 2016 opener against Tipperary was the first of 22 in a row in which the blood and bandage were completely bereft of an All-Ireland medal winner before or since. Photo by Dáire Brennan/SPORTSFILE

By Leo McGough

1916 MUNSTER SEMI-FINAL

August 6, Waterford Gaelic Field: Cork 8-1, Waterford 3-2

Cork’s starting 15 paraded not one player who was a holder of a coveted Celtic Cross, as Larry Flaherty, the last survivor of the Rebel County’s 1903 triumph, bade farewell following their shock 1915 All-Ireland final defeat by Laois. However four of this 1916 team — Seán Og Murphy, Paddy O’Halloran, Tim Nagle, and Jimmy ‘Major’ Kennedy — went on to pocket All-Ireland medals

1939 MUNSTER SEMI-FINAL

June 25, Fermoy: Cork 7-4 Waterford 4-3

The starting 15 for the first time in 23 years were without an All-Ireland medalist but by career’s end all bar one — Bobby Dineen of Midleton — had at enjoyed ultimate glory, many part of the 1941-1944 four in a row.

1963 MUNSTER FIRST ROUND

May 26, Thurles Sportsfield: Cork 4-15, Clare 2-11

A Ring-less Rebel 15 were without a player with All-Ireland gold for the first time in 24 years but again four — Paddy Barry, Denis Murphy, Jerry O’Sullivan, and Paddy Fitzgerald — subsequently won All-Ireland medals.

2014 MUNSTER FIRST ROUND

May 25, Thurles: Cork 1-21, Waterford 1-21

Tom Kenny’s cameo appearances as a substitute in the 2013 All-Ireland finals, draw and replay, prevented Cork sampling Championship action without an All-Ireland medal winner but this first-round game saw the Rebels, for the first time in 61 long years, line-out without a Celtic Cross winner. Nor has any of that starting 15 — or the four subs who came on — enjoyed All-Ireland success since.

2016 MUNSTER FIRST ROUND

May 22, Thurles: Tipperary 0-22, Cork 0-13

The return of Bride Rovers Brian Murphy ensured Cork’s 2015 campaign involved an All-Ireland medal but this 2016 first-round game was the first of 22 in a row in which the blood and bandage were completely bereft of an All-Ireland medal winner before or since.

Note: Only All-Ireland medals won on the field of play were considered in this exercise.

Note 2: Only if Cork win an All-Ireland with at least one of Anthony Nash, Damien Cahalane, Christopher Joyce, Conor Lehane, Alan Cadogan, Seamus Harnedy or Patrick Horgan aboard then that 2014 game will enter the record books as the first since the 1890s, when club’s represented the county, that no All-Ireland medal winner, fore or aft, was in action.

- You can read the Irish Examiner's 20-page special publication looking forward to the Allianz Hurling League and Championship with your Friday edition of the Irish Examiner in stores or from our epaper site.