Cork must now deliver in familiar environs 

HOME DISCOMFORTS: Ian Maguire of Cork after his side's defeat in the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Cork and Cavan. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach, Sportsfile

Five years ago this month, the Cork footballers welcomed Kildare to Páirc Uí Chaoimh a week after they had opened their Division 2 account - albeit with a draw, not a last-gasp win - above in Fermanagh.

Sound familiar?

Most will struggle to remember who came out on top that February Sunday Kildare visited. Nobody, though, will have forgotten the wretched and torn state of the playing surface across the 70-plus minutes.

Then Kildare manager Cian O’Neill said the cut-up pitch stopped both teams from being in any way fluid. 

“Any time you went to change direction, you’d be slipping, and balls weren’t coming up off the surface,” he added.

As to the result, Kildare scored a three-point win despite playing with a man less for the closing half an hour.

That 2019 Round 2 fixture was Cork’s third league outing at the redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh following the venue’s reopening 19 months earlier. 

All three games ended in defeat.

A new playing surface was laid later that year, but no improvement has it brought to Cork’s dreadful home record in Division 2.

The following stats make for unpleasant reading. The following stats provide little comfort ahead of Kildare’s latest Division 2 visit this Sunday.

Since joining the League’s second tier in 2017, Cork have played 19 games at home. Twelve at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the remaining seven at Páirc Uí Rinn.

Only five of those 19 have ended in a home victory. Exactly double the number of wins have ended in home defeat.

2024 is Cork’s seventh season in Division 2. Of the previous six, there has never been a spring where Cork have managed more than one home league victory. 

In the aforementioned 2019, there was no home win at all. After Kildare had taken maximum points back up the road, Meath and Donegal did likewise in the weeks after.

Of the three home victories achieved across the last three years, the teams Cork dispatched on home soil - Westmeath (2021), Down (‘22), and Limerick (‘23) - were all relegated the same spring. Indeed, it was the exact same story in 2017 and ‘18 against Fermanagh and Louth.

The point is clear: Cork, in their own backyard, have not been able to better teams either at their own level or teams a notch or two above them on the ladder.

There are a couple of reasons for such. 

Home or away, Cork are notoriously slow starters when it comes to putting league points on the board in Rounds 1 and 2. We hardly at this stage need to rehash the county’s abysmal opening day Division 2 record.

Another factor is that towards the end of the last decade, Clare and Tipperary pulled up level alongside Cork. There was no fear of the red shirt from two counties that had traditionally suffered against it. 

Both fully believed they could match Cork each time they stood opposite them.

Clare have collected three points from their last two league spins south, while Tipp took their hosts for 3-16 and the spoils on the opening weekend in 2018.

On other occasions, the opposition had nothing to do with it. 

Cork wholly to blame for further worsening their scant home takings. Immediately springing to mind is the wastefulness that cost them against Meath last year and Cavan two weekends ago.

Former Cork footballer Patrick Kelly, speaking on the Irish Examiner Gaelic football podcast two years ago, offered another view of why Cork rarely thrive at home. He argued that the lack of support for the Cork football team can affect the players.

Kelly was speaking after a rare league win at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, over Down, which was watched by what this writer described as an “incredibly small home crowd”.

“I recall back to 2011, just after winning an All-Ireland, and our first home league game was against Monaghan and the crowd was pitiful (1,375 was the attendance),” said Kelly.

“And while as a player you play it down and you say it doesn’t have a huge impact, just the energy that a crowd gives you, that bit of a buzz and that cheering of scores and stuff.

“I was at the Down game last week and it was so quiet. You could hear every call, every instruction from the ‘keeper.

“I’d like to say, get the results and the crowds will follow, but that has been proven not to be the case.” 

That same 2022, Cork’s game against Clare was part of a Páirc Uí Chaoimh double-header with the Cork and Clare hurlers. The hurling was played first, leading to a mass exodus at full-time. The footballers emerged to a near empty arena.

Like several Division 2 teams that have travelled to the newly branded SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in recent years, winless and pointless Kildare are seen as beatable. 

Where Cork football is concerned, though, perception has rarely fed two league points.

“We were favourites against Cavan and we didn’t win,” replied John Cleary when asked about the Lilywhites following the Fermanagh win. 

“You have to play on the day, you have to show up.” 

Cork’s home record would make clear that they are two boxes the footballers struggle to tick in familiar environs.