Brian Hurley: Cork belief means quarter-final is more than a bonus

The Cork attacker says hard work has paid off for the footballers

12 June 2022; Cork players Mattie Taylor, left, and Brian Hurley after the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 2 match between between Cork and Limerick at Páirc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Bonus territory for the Cork footballers? Absolutely not, says Brian Hurley.

Despite the insistence of the joint-captain that Cork are where they set out to be at the start of the season, there was next to nobody outside of the Cork camp mentioning them as a possible last-eight team when their very involvement in the All-Ireland series was mired in uncertainty after a five-game winless run at the beginning of the League.

And even after hanging on in Division 2 and avoiding the ignominy of Tailteann Cup involvement, there remained no clear and obvious path that would take a newish-looking and injury-hit Cork side into the last eight of the football championship.

No question but the first and second-round qualifier draws were incredibly kind to John Cleary’s charges - that run of luck not extending to yesterday morning’s quarter-final pairings - but the way Hurley sees it is that Cork shouldn’t look upon quarter-final involvement as bonus country when they’ve earned the right to be there.

“Why would it be bonus territory if you work hard enough and get results,” replied the full-forward when asked if Cork had exceeded expectations in returning to the quarter-final juncture for the first time since 2019.

“We set out to be there at the start of the year and we are there now. A lot of hard work went in, it is paying off now.

“We had a lot of years of ups and downs, but we have made a lot of progress this year, I feel. A lot of the younger fellas have stood up when we needed them, especially today against Limerick, the likes of Kevin O’Donovan and Cathail O’Mahony.

“It is coming together and there is great belief in the squad, and we are back where we want to be.” 

That belief took a fair battering during the earlier mentioned winless League run, Cork collecting all of a single point from their first five outings in Division 2. Add in the significant turnover of players from the 2021 panel, a seemingly never-ending injury count, and Keith Ricken having to temporarily step away as manager, it wasn’t so much raining on Leeside as it was pouring.

“It didn’t work out at the start of the year the way we tried to play. We tweaked a few things, other players came back from injury, and it worked nicely,” Hurley continued.

“Ever since the Down game in Round 6 of the League, you can see the results have been good. Training has been very, very good and we are getting the performances we want.” 

Hurley was speaking to reporters before Cork had learned the identity of their All-Ireland quarter-final opponents, but the 30-year-old didn’t need to know it was Dublin they were playing to be fully aware that what was sufficient to take them past Limerick won’t be in any way satisfactory next time out.

“If I’m being very honest, we played fairly poorly to what we can do, so hopefully that will come the next day.

“I know the last two games weren’t as pretty as we wanted on the football style of it, but we wanted to get the job done. We can do our homework now and look forward.” 

The Castlehaven clubman kicked 1-4 in a fine showing against Louth, while his was the converted penalty on Sunday afternoon that eventually took the home side out of Limerick’s reach.

Admitting to having not been at all happy with his Munster semi-final performance, a game he was held scoreless in, Hurley’s 2-6 qualifier haul, coupled with Steven Sherlock’s 0-16 tally, has seen the pair account for 67% of Cork scores the last two weekends.

25-year-old Sherlock, who was dropped from the panel in early 2020, has been the county’s most consistent performer this summer.

“Stevie is a great guy. Some people forget his age, he is still very young. Sometimes we have to give it to each other, as well, but it’s definitely working some bit,” Hurley said of their inside partnership.

“He’s young and there’s still pressure on him, but by god he is performing. Even the pressure from the frees, it's great to have that in your locker.”