The problems and plusses on Cork football’s balance sheet

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: Cork wing-forward Seán McDonnell. Pic: Tom Beary/Sportsfile

PLUSSES and problem areas. Or should that be problem areas and pluses? Either way, Cork are not shy of standouts in both departments.

The headline entries into either column are obvious. Less so are the numbers around them and the impact they’re having, positively and negatively, on performances and results. 

Or, more pertinently, the impact they’ll have if repeated against Dublin.

The overloaded left flank kickout approach 

Micheál Aodh Martin’s outstanding final quarter contribution in Portlaoise, deflected from the intense spotlight that has been focused on his kickout for the past number of weeks. The conversation moved to his shot-stopping and away from restart retention.

Here are the numbers that were somewhat buried last Saturday: Cork won 14 of their 26 kickouts. That 14/26 figure, however, reduces to 12/26 when you consider that on two occasions in the second-half the Cork kickout winner was immediately stripped or fouled possession, the former of those instances resulting in a Roscommon point.

Cork won only three of their nine first-half restarts. And when they failed to retain Martin’s opening kickout upon the change of ends, they stood at a desperate 3/10.

Overall, Roscommon mined 0-4 off the Cork kickout, greater than the 0-3 the Rebels engineered from the same source. Same story in the second-half against Kerry a fortnight earlier. Kerry mined 0-7 off the Cork kickout, greater than the 0-5 the Rebels engineered from the same source.

But wasn’t Martin kicking into a strong wind in that second-half, I hear you say. Correct, but consider that when the gale was with them in the second-half against Meath a week earlier, John Cleary’s side still lost seven of their 14 restarts, with Meath raising five white flags off the seven won.

With Dublin’s primary fielder Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne in fine form, and Brian Howard and Ciarán Kilkenny hoovering on the break, Dublin will go aggressively after the Cork kickout. 

When Kerry did likewise in the opening 24 minutes of the Munster semi-final, the Kingdom won five of the first nine restarts and used this dominance as the platform to establish a 0-11 to 0-4 lead. Martin and his targets are forewarned.

Cork twice went short against Roscommon. A red shirt was found each time. One of them even finished with a Cork point. 

This option, albeit laced with risk, as was emphasised when David Clifford intercepted one such short restart for a goal three weeks ago, needs greater employment at the expense of the all too obvious overloaded approach.

Cork’s midfield colossuses

Although it was Paul and Seán Walsh who were most prominent under the Cork restart last Saturday, the primary targets remain the midfield pairing of Ian Maguire and Colm O’Callaghan.

What the pair did achieve on Saturday was to reinforce their invaluable worth to John Cleary’s set-up.

Cork’s Colm O'Callaghan tackles Brian Stack of Roscommon. Pic: Leah Scholes/Inpho

O’Callaghan kicked a pair of white flags, assisted another, and made the intercept for another point. Maguire also kicked a pair and assisted a third, as well as having two secondary assists.

Maguire and O’Callaghan have been the starting midfield pairing for Cork’s last 21 championship games, going all the way back to the 2022 Munster semi-final. In all bar two, the pair were still toiling at the final whistle.

Goals, or lack thereof

Of the three goal chances created last Saturday, two fell to Maguire. He flashed over both times, as did Seán McDonnell with their first green flag sighting.

There were seven such sightings not taken against Kerry on the June Bank Holiday weekend. During extra-time alone in their first summer meeting with the neighbours, they went zero from two.

Of the 11 other counties that progressed from the group stages, seven counties totalled three or more goals, Cavan, Meath, and Armagh rose two green flags each, with Dublin just the solitary. 

All, mind, were still above Cork’s goalless count. From five championship outings this year, Chris Óg Jones’ second-half major in the Munster semi-final on April 19 is the sole occasion they shook an opposition net.

Factor in their goalless Round 7 League win over Cavan and what you’ll have come throw-in on Saturday is just one Cork goal in the 97 days previous.

Red shoots

Necessity rather than design saw Seán Brady, Neil Lordan, and Seán McDonnell shoved in at the deep end of the pool last January and February. Defections, sabbaticals, retirements, and injuries left the dressing-room somewhat threadbare.

After failing to score in either of their two opening group games, Mallow clubman McDonnell was outstanding at O’Moore Park. There were assists, frees won, and four from play. 

Although initially used as one of the three-up at the beginning of the year, the 23-year-old is hitting his straps out at half-forward, as is Brady in defence. Their Croke Park debuts await.

Consistency

The old chestnut. Hanging on against Roscommon delivered a first championship win over a fellow Sam Maguire county since Donegal were downed on June 1 last year.

Off the back of their spring promotion, Roscommon wear Division 1 clothes. And so the challenge presents itself to Cork this weekend to sink a pair of top-tier counties in the same season. Their most recent mastering of this feat was the back-to-back victories over Mayo and Roscommon this month two years ago. 

Before that, though, you had to go all the way back to 2012 when Kerry and Kildare were bettered in the Munster semi-final and All-Ireland quarter-final respectively.

This Cork team has become an almost market-leader in pulling off victory when pinned against a wall. Backing that victory up remains a problem area unsolved.