Rossies visit provides acid test of Cork's spring promise
Paul Walsh of Cork in action against Eugene Branagan of Down. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
As is well stated at this stage, 2025 represents Cork’s eighth spring, out of the last nine, spent in Division 2 of the Allianz Football League.
And while the four points collected from across the opening four rounds is neither overly impressive nor overly poor, never have Cork, across their seven previous failed attempts, been as close at this juncture of the League to the counties occupying the promotion places.
In three of those failed promotion attempts - 2019, 2022, and last year - Cork actually occupied a relegation berth come the end of the fourth round.
In another, 2017, they teetered just one place above said relegation berths.
Dreadfully slow starters, as is well known and has been plenty documented.
Now in 2023, Cork also had four points, as they do presently, and sat one place higher in third than they do presently.
The difference on that occasion was that pace-setters Dublin and Derry were both unbeaten and already four points clear of a chasing pack headed by John Cleary’s charges.
In 2025, by contrast, the three counties ahead of them - Monaghan, Meath, and Roscommon - are just two points up the road.
In essence, Cork are still in the hunt, arguably more so than they’ve ever been at this stage of the spring since joining the second tier in 2017.
Round 5 has so often been about survival and consolidation. Not this Saturday down the Páirc.
Overcome Roscommon at home, along with a slip-up by either Meath or Monaghan, both of whom are on the road this Sunday, and Cork will move level on points with the county occupying the second promotion spot.
“Big game Saturday. No point saying otherwise. We are fighting for promotion,” said half-forward Paul Walsh, who has started all four outings in 2025.
"Playing Division 1 week-in, week-out is the goal because being exposed to that level week-in, week-out is where you get real improvement. Is that one of our goals at the minute? Absolutely, 100%.
“Just looking forward to Saturday now. A big win would really boost morale inside the camp.”
The same as Roscommon, who are travelling south off the back of a comprehensive defeat to Meath, Cork also lost on their travels last weekend.
Trailing 3-5 to 0-5 at the turnaround, the visitors to Inniskeen succeeded in putting only the tiniest of dents into that nine-point differential across the second 35 minutes.
Monaghan’s three majors brought the number of green flags conceded by Cork over the past three games to seven. No other Division 2 county conceded as much across Rounds 2, 3, and 4.
Factor in the opening weekend and Cork's is the joint-worst goal concession record in the division.
“Our scoring has been very encouraging. It has been fairly high. We have been able to score plenty of goals and two-pointers. But on the other side of that, we are conceding goals ourselves, so tightening up things in defence is something we'll definitely be working on for the next couple of weeks,” Walsh continued.
“Frustration more than anything was the main emotion coming out of Inniskeen. We know we are better than how we performed last Saturday. So, frustration, and a bit of disappointment too.
“But we trained on Wednesday and things went well. Things are going well in the group, so we know to dust ourselves off and go hard at it again for Saturday.
“There was a fierce gale against us in the first half against Monaghan. The talk beforehand was that if we are against that wind, mind the ball, hold it as best as we can, and then play more expressive football in the second period when that wind is at our back.
“But the way the game panned out, we conceded a goal early on, then conceded another goal unfortunately, and we were chasing it after that. Hopefully we can rectify that on Saturday.”
Touching on the new rules, Kanturk clubman Walsh declared himself a strong supporter of the three-up and ‘solo and go’ enhancements, but was undecided on the 12v11 overlap created by fly 'keepers.
“Teams that have a goalkeeper who likes to play ball and come up the field definitely have an advantage with that, the likes of Niall Morgan in Tyrone and Ethan Rafferty in Armagh.”
Walsh was speaking at the launch of the McCarthy Insurance Group Cork football leagues. Cork county chairman Pat Horgan, though present at the launch, was unavailable for interview with the
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