Cork in need of some Conor Corbett class in Killarney

Conor Corbett's Cork chapter is really only getting going and yet he’s already establishing himself as a main character in John Cleary’s cast.

Wed, 17 Apr, 2024 - 07:20

Eoghan Cormican

The last time Cork travelled across to Killarney, Conor Corbett crept into and cropped up in the pre-match conversation.

It was the 2021 Munster SFC final. 19-year-old Corbett wasn’t even part of the Cork senior panel. He was instead tearing it up at U20 level. It was this tearing it up that had elevated him into the Munster final conversation.

A week and a half before the Cork-Kerry decider, the counties met in the Munster U20 semi-final. Cork won by the minimum. Corbett was awesome. Kicked 2-4. The minor marvel was moving up the ladder in lethal fashion.

The day before the Munster senior decider, Éamonn Fitzmaurice wondered aloud on these pages if the Clyda Rovers youngster might be a surprise and 11th hour inclusion on Ronan McCarthy’s matchday panel for the spin to Fitzgerald Stadium.

“Could someone like Conor Corbett from the U20 team be sprung a la Mark Keane last year,” Fitzmaurice mused. “I was hugely impressed with Corbett in the U20 game and he looks ready for senior football, certainly in terms of impacting off the bench.”

The same day as Fitzmaurice declared the teenager's readiness for senior fare, it was announced that his season was over. His departure from the Munster U20 final win over Tipp two days earlier was the result of a now-confirmed cruciate rupture.

Speaking to a member of that year’s Cork senior management, it was “never a runner” to pluck and promote Corbett from the U20 ranks mid-season, even before his ACL misfortune.

Conor Corbett of Cork has a shot at goal despite the attempts of Cillian Fahy of Limerick. Pic: Tom Beary, Sportsfile

The resultant year out delayed his senior promotion. A hamstring injury last summer delayed his first senior championship outing against Kerry.

And so on this latest journey to Killarney, and three years after it was first mooted, 22-year-old Corbett will face the green and gold for the first time in championship.

A tell-tale sign of his injury struggles is that Saturday will be only his third championship start for Cork.

A tell-tale sign of what he's capable of when not trying to shake this niggle or that is how he heads to Killarney as Cork’s in-form forward.

He heads there as the apex of the Cork attack.

Returning to competitive fare post-ACL rupture, Corbett found the net with his first touch when introduced as a 41st minute sub during Clyda’s 2022 Senior A championship opener.

It was the same kind of story with Cork in 2024. Injury took him out of their opening three league games. He returned in Ederney.

During a first half where Cork were in danger of falling so far off the pace as to make a fourth consecutive defeat inevitable, his timely contribution was a converted mark and sideline.

The visitors to Fermanagh got to the break only 0-8 to 0-6 in arrears. They finished with a first league win. Corbett top-scored on their next two outings. 1-2 against Kildare and 1-3 against Meath. Two more wins to turn around their spring and season.

If his green flag against the Lilywhites demonstrated class, his major against Meath demonstrated the composure Cork have been so lacking in front of goal this year.

Mind you, Corbett himself was guilty of such last time out against Limerick. But given the evidence provided across the four games previous, he is forgiven one malfunctioning afternoon.

In Fitzgerald Stadium, they need him functioning and finishing. They need his flash and finesse.

“Conor has been in the news since he was U17,” begins Cork selector Micheál Ó Cróinín.

“I was involved with the U20s when he did his cruciate against Tipperary up in Thurles. He was having a great year that year.

“It takes a while to come back and get up to this level. You are jumping from underage up to senior. It takes a while to establish yourself physically, and tactically too as there is a lot more going on.”

The word locally in his home parish of Mourneabbey is that Corbett used Covid and his cruciate rupture to prioritise physical development.

He went from a “scrawny minor” pre-pandemic to a broad and well-built athlete coming out the far side of it.

“Slowly but surely he is starting to find his feet now,” Ó Cróinín continued. “You saw the first glimpses of it against Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-final last year where he looked like a man out there. He is showing up as a big leader. You are looking for all your cogs to kick in on this team and certainly Conor is in good form right now.”

But just last autumn, there was a danger of Corbett’s socks-up-to-the-knee confidence being lost. There was a danger of the potential first witnessed when kicking 1-7 to drag the county to All-Ireland minor glory being lost.

The DCU student had been on the radar of AFL establishments since that 2019 minor campaign. Along with Eoin McElholm of Tyrone, Down’s Odhran Murdock, and Galway’s James McLaughlin, he travelled to Australia last September to participate in the 2023 AFL draft combine. Two weeks of visiting AFL clubs and testing oneself alongside Australian prospects.

While clearly he wanted to view the professional side of sport, Cork were confident he’d come back to them. And so he did.

His Cork chapter is really only getting going and yet he’s already establishing himself as a main character in John Cleary’s cast.