Cork 'won't fear any team in the country' - Colm O'Callaghan

NO FEAR OF ANYONE: Cork's Colm O'Callaghan believes Cork knows what they are capable of now. Pic:Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

This conversation with Colm O’Callaghan took place prior to Monday morning’s All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final draw and Cork being paired with Roscommon. But given the confidence and almost gentle bullishness exuded by the Cork midfielder, the date of when this chat convened is nearly irrelevant.

O’Callaghan had not yet left the Gaelic Grounds field following Sunday’s statement win over Mayo when it was put to him that Cork won’t fear any team in the last 12 draw after such a comeback victory.

“Not a hope, no,” he replied, before taking it a step further himself. “We won’t fear any team in the country now at this stage, to be honest with you. We know what we’re capable of. We’re able to squeeze out games until the bitter end, so there’ll be no fear of anyone.”

Sweat, sweet euphoria, and a strong sense of assurance coursed through O’Callaghan as he spoke. The Cork footballers have caught a wave of momentum. It’s been a while. They want to surf it well into July.

“The plan now is to stay on the tracks for as long as we can and look, hopefully, we will. I think we deserve to go all the way now to be honest with you.

“The last few years haven’t been easy. There've been plenty of ups but there've been a lot of downs as well and we’ve kept going so look, it’s a wonderful group and at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, hopefully we’ll get the job done.” 

In 2023, there have been far more peaks than troughs. Outside of their league and championship openers, John Cleary’s charges have been competitive and coherent.

Not alone that but they’ve shown resilience, self-confidence and an ability to problem solve when faced with sticky situations. They’ve not panicked or fallen apart when we’ve expected them to.

Against Dublin in the League, they came from five behind in the third quarter to within a goalie’s glove of victory at the finish. Against Derry, they came from eight behind in the third quarter to earn a draw. Either side of coursing Kerry to the line in their second Sam Maguire group outing, they recovered from third quarter oppression at the thumb of Louth and Mayo to eke out season-turning victories.

It was O’Callaghan who flicked the switch on Cork’s comeback against the League champions last Sunday. Little over a minute after Tommy Conroy’s 56th minute goal put Mayo six clear, the Éire Óg clubman drove at the Mayo defence from a long way out, winning the penalty which Steven Sherlock converted.

Cork, says O’Callaghan, are a “different team now, a different animal”. The 2019 All-Ireland U20 winner attributes this change to a much stronger mental fortitude.

“We believe in each other. We’re fit enough, we’re strong enough. It’s just belief, really. We showed it [against Mayo], we can do it against the bigger teams. Just belief in each other is the main thing.

“It’s probably come from training. We train very hard, in fairness. The five-week block after the Clare game, no one put the heads down or nothing. We got together a week later and we trained like dogs for the five-week block and it did us the world of good.

“We dug out a win against Louth, you could say we were a bit unlucky against Kerry, our shot percentage wasn’t hectic, but look, we dug deep [against Mayo] and we got the three-point win that we needed.” 

For a county whose only Division 1 scalp in championship over the past 12 years was Kerry - in 2012 and 2020 - you’d have thought a win like Sunday’s would have provided a sizable shot of confidence.

Not really and nor did they need any such shot, insisted O’Callaghan. More important was the affirmation attained by the performance and three-point result.

“We are a confident side. We know what we are capable of. I suppose it is a bit refreshing to see that we showed here on the pitch today what we are capable of.

“Obviously, it’s a boost and the home advantage is massive as well in the next game but I think we knew what we were capable of beforehand, and it was great to be able to show it today.

“I don’t think we’d fear any team we come up against now in the next few games and hopefully it will be a few more games, that’s the plan. Next Sunday now, that’s what it’s all about. We’ll prepare accordingly this week and please God, we’ll get through.”