'Do-or-die' Why relegation could have far reaching consequences for the Rebels 

Former Cork star Haulie O’Sullivan fears the impact the drop to Division 3 could have on the development of Keith Ricken's young squad 

Cork's Kevin Flahive leaves the pitch after the Allianz Football League Division 2 defeat to Meath at Páirc Táilteann 

The verdict of Micheál ‘Haulie’ O’Sullivan is that Cork will overcome Offaly and hold onto their Division 2 status. 

The alternative outcome, he added, would leave Cork football at an even lower ebb to where it is presently and so relegation has to be avoided at all costs.

Tomorrow afternoon in Tullamore, one from Cork and Offaly will survive in Division 2. For whoever comes out on the wrong side of the result, Division 3 fare awaits next spring and, before that, likely Tailteann Cup involvement this summer.

Haulie O’Sullivan, who lined out at midfield for the county in the 1999 All-Ireland final, saw enough structure and enough progress in last weekend’s lifeline-providing win over Down - Cork’s first in any competition since January 11 - to convince him that a second victory can be secured this weekend and relegation avoided.

Oisín McConville, speaking on the Irish Examiner Allianz Football League podcast the day after Cork’s heavy Round 5 beating away to Meath, was extremely critical of there being “no make, shape, or form” to the way Keith Ricken’s team play. And while there was a great deal of truth to McConville’s utterance, O’Sullivan reckons a small but important corner was turned in the Down win.

“I was impressed by the way they set up last weekend and the fact that they kept three up all the time in the form of Steven Sherlock, Cathail O’Mahony, and Brian Hurley,” said the former Cork footballer.

“In defence, you had Rory Maguire and Kevin O’Donovan sitting either side of the D about 30 yards from goal protecting Kevin Flahive who was marking one of Down’s better players.

“As a result, the fast ball in that was happening against Meath and Galway wasn’t on so Cork were in a better position to slow down the opposition ball. That plus one or plus two there to keep space shut down hadn’t been happening in previous games.

“If we can be as structured in defence again and if the midfield pairing of Ian Maguire and Colm O’Callaghan can carry their Down performance to Offaly and improve on that, I think we’ll come out the right side.” 

Should his prediction of a Cork win materialise, O'Sullivan expects the county to be far more competitive in the second division next year given the amount of players currently absent because of injury.

Dropping to Division 3, he stressed, is of no use to Cork and only lengthens the road the county has to travel to return to the top table.

“If you drop to Division 3, you are playing at a lower standard and it is further away from where you actually want to be. If you drop to Division 3, you are playing five or six challenge games before you actually have to play teams of the quality of Kerry again. That is no disrespect to the teams in Division 3, but we obviously want to progress a little bit quicker than that.

“Sunday is a do-or-die situation where you are putting yourself at a lower ebb, if you lose. But if they can survive in Division 2, and while at the moment we’d all have to say that Kerry are going to beat Cork [in the Munster semi-final], you could get a couple of games in the qualifiers that would bring on this crew and lead to a more positive outlook for 2023.” 

Irrespective of whether Cork end up in the Sam Maguire or Tailteann Cup in the months ahead, a definite problem for the county is that there is no semblance of a settled team heading into championship.

Injuries, the culling of experienced players from the set-up, and other panel departures has lent itself to 15 players making their League debut and an average of four personnel changes to the starting team from one league game to the next.

“Take the centre-back position as an example of that, six different players have played centre-back this year (Seán Powter, Sean Meehan, John Cooper, Rory Maguire, Billy Hennessy, and Kieran Histon),” O’Sullivan pointed out.

“When you have a pivotal position like that and you haven’t got consistency on who is playing there, that forces you to move other guys from elsewhere in the backline into that central position who mightn’t be as comfortable there. That leads to a lot of rejigging.

“We are at a low ebb at the moment and a lot of that has been forced on the management rather than being of the management’s making. We all have a duty to keep tough, see this through, and hope that maybe next year you’ll have a season where you are not picking up as many injuries to important players at the wrong time of the year and that will enable them to have greater consistency of selection.

“The most important thing right now is that these guys go out with the shoulder to the wheel in Tullamore, pull off the victory against Offaly, and we can look at everything else after that.”