Cork beating Tyrone would 'copper-fasten that they are back up there again'

“I was delighted to see the footballers get the same treatment as the hurlers."

Sat, 15 Jun, 2024 - 06:03

Eoghan Cormican

Maybe it would have been something and maybe it would have been nothing.

Had Laois, as many expected, overcome Offaly in last week’s Joe McDonagh final, Cork and Tyrone would be shaking hands at Portlaoise, not Tullamore. Cork cut an embarrassed lot the last time they shook hands with Tyrone at O’Moore Park.

The prize on offer that July Saturday six years ago was the same as this Saturday - an All-Ireland quarter-final spot.

The survivor count includes Kevin Flahive, Mattie Taylor, Ian Maguire, Brian O’Driscoll, Ruairí Deane, Killian O’Hanlon, and Brian Hurley. Enough of them for it to maybe squeak a mention in training this week.

Cork football has been a small-town amusement park ride of moderate highs and plunging lows over the past decade, but amid all that, you never forget as dark and abject an afternoon as July 7, 2018.

Paul Kerrigan was introduced five minutes into the second half at Portlaoise. He offers a blunt assessment of the 3-20 to 0-13 annihilation.

Arriving a fortnight after the 3-18 to 2-4 Munster final tanking to Kerry, it stands as Cork’s worst championship summer in recent memory.

“We were a bit all over the shop,” Kerrigan recalls of the 16-point Tyrone skewering.

“They were fitter. They were tactically more aware. They were cohesive as a team, whereas we were a bit all over the place. They were a bit like Cork now, they had a good mix of old and young, and they knew what they were about.”

The match report we studied of the Round 4 mismatch omitted Donncha O’Connor’s 46th minute introduction.

“I did get time,” O’Connor jovially corrects us. “I would have been better off if I didn’t! Horrendous.

“I’d have to watch it again, even though I don’t want to, but I think Cork had a couple of goal chances in the opening half and didn’t take them. We dropped the heads and Tyrone took over.

“The difference I see with the lads today is that if they go two, three, or four down, they don’t ever seem to go out of the game, they battle away.”

O’Connor’s 13-season career didn’t get its just conclusion at O’Moore Park. Then again, control of the final chapter is rarely in the hands of the retiring individual.

“Came on as a sub when we were 10 down and didn’t make any difference. Knowing coming on that the game is gone is not a nice place to be. Everyone wants to finish on a high, but there are more people that finish on a low, and I was added to the list that day.”

Cork's Conor Corbett celebrates after scoring during the All-Ireland SFC group stage victory over Donegal. Picture: ©INPHO/Nick Elliott

Kerrigan gets far more exercised about the clash with Tyrone 12 months later. Second round of the Super 8s. The same as this Saturday, a clear enough path to an All-Ireland semi-final was on offer. Ahead by six early in the second-half, Cork couldn’t hold on.

“We threw that one away. F**king devastating,” he laments. “Looking at them now, they seem to be a funny enough crowd. They have plenty of talent, but are quite inconsistent.” The latter comment, for so long directed at Cork, is aimed at Tyrone.

The stakes for this latest get-together have been well spelled out. According to Kerrigan, the Cork players will absolutely be looking down the road at the route they could create for themselves to end the county’s 12-year wait for a last-four appearance.

“When I was playing, you were looking at what way it would line up for you if you won Munster. The easier path to the All-Ireland semi-final is a huge carrot. Other than Dublin or Kerry, they could definitely take a scalp of anybody else.”

After Dublin and Kerry, there is one large chase group. Cork are in there somewhere. Take Tyrone in championship for the first time in 15 years, insists the Nemo clubman, and Cleary’s men move themselves right up near the front of that group.

“To beat two top Ulster teams back-to-back and top the group, it would be a real signal that they are back. They'd be a top six team. I know people are saying they are on the right road, but it would nearly copper-fasten that they are back up there again.” The old teammates attribute Cork’s run of only one defeat in eight to differing factors.

Kerrigan picks out the defensive line moving from their own 45 to halfway. This confident stepping out makes them far more dangerous on turnovers, as evidenced by the Seán Powter and Mattie Taylor goals against Clare and Donegal respectively.

O’Connor points to improved individual efforts enhancing the collective. There is mention for Paul and Tommy Walsh not too far over the road in Duhallow. Chris Kelly has taken a chance few saw him getting. In front of him, Daniel O’Mahony “has found another level”.

What it’s all fed into is a “wave of positivity” that the footballers are typically starved of.

“The Donegal game was electric. Jesus, there were people high as kites after it. There is a lot more positivity about them than negativity,” remarked O’Connor.

The pass to Kerrigan. He finishes the move.

“I was delighted to see the footballers get the same treatment as the hurlers. I'd always try to be positive about the footballers, but I do think a corner is very much turned. They are one win from copper-fastening going up that level to being possible contenders.”