Fitzgibbon not in the mood to take Cork's latest Croker appearance for granted

Two years, 10 months, and 15 days. That’s how long, come Sunday dinnertime, it will have been since Cork’s last championship visit to Croke Park.

Fri, 05 Jul, 2024 - 06:47

Eoghan Cormican

1,050 days. Or, to break it down into a more digestible sum, two years, 10 months, and 15 days. That’s how long, come Sunday dinnertime, it will have been since Cork’s last championship visit to Croke Park.

It’s just shy of the 1,092 days that separated the county’s All-Ireland semi-final visits of 2014 and 2017.

Long gaps between visits are only half the picture of Cork’s modern-day championship relationship with Croker. Over the past 10 seasons, there have been just five summer runouts for Cork at GAA HQ.

Only one of those - the 2021 extra-time semi-final against Kilkenny - ended in victory.

Add in the first half of the last decade and Cork boast only three wins from 12 championship appearances at Croker. Of the eight defeats, half of them - 2010 All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny, 14 semi-final against Tipperary, 17 semi-final against Waterford, and 21 decider against Limerick- were double-digit beatings.

To stretch out fully the county’s poor run, if you lump in the 2008 semi-final loss to Kilkenny, the 2007 quarter-final draw and replay defeat to Waterford, and coming off second best against the Cats in the 2006 showpiece, Cork’s three victories across their last 16 championship fixtures at Jones Road provides a shocking Croke Park win rate of just 19%.

And so when you hear Darragh Fitzgibbon outlining how the panel’s more experienced members are informing the younger lads not to take Sunday as something guaranteed to come along every July, you get a sense why.

“One of the things that we've been talking about recently is that, especially for the younger guys and the guys in their first or second year on the panel, we're heading to Croke Park, but you can't take that for granted,” said the 27-year-old.

“It's something that fellas, as young fellas, might think happens every year, but as you see it doesn't happen every year. Even after the 2021 All-Ireland final, obviously it was a really disappointing day and we got absolutely outclassed by a really, really good side but you'd be saying, 'Right, we'll build on it and we'll try to get back again next year'.

“But it's been three years since we've been back in Croke Park, so that's the message we're trying to get across to the younger group, that whatever role they're playing, these opportunities don't come along very often and we have to take those opportunities when we get them.”

They took their opportunity against Limerick in mid-May because they went for broke. They defied established conventional wisdom that you don’t go long and direct as often as possible against the champions.

Their season being on the line, said Fitzgibbon, demanded such an approach, one he feels they’ve taken with them since turning their campaign around.

“There was a lot of pressure going into that Limerick game. You could either let it eat you up or you could put the shoulders out, drive through and give it your best. That's what we did.

“You take a lot of learnings from each performance and they're some of the things we took from that one that we've been trying to build on throughout the last few weeks.”

Fitzgibbon has had four different midfield partners - Tommy O’Connell, Ethan Twomey, Ciarán Joyce, and Luke Meade - across Cork’s six championship outings. Fitzgibbon has been the constant. Joint top-scorer from play with 0-19. The debate about where he can be most effective for Cork is no more.

“It's probably where I'm most experienced and where I take most confidence from. It is a really, really difficult position because you could get 10 or 12 possessions or you could end up getting nothing, the ball could go back over your head. I'm definitely happiest out there, yeah.”