Ronan Curran: Cork could do with more help from own pundits

Cork hurling coach Curran said the Rebels cannot afford to be distracted by outside noise, but admits there are times the county set-up could do with stronger backing from its own.

Ronan Curran of the Cork Senior hurling management team at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Picture: Larry Cummins

Ben O’Connor said on these pages last week that he loves when his Cork players deliver their thoughts in unvarnished fashion. He doesn’t want any of them trotting out the company line or being guarded in how they express themselves.

Call it as you see it, basically. Be full and forthright in your expressions.

And in today’s world of virtual nothingness from one player interview to the next, O’Connor’s advocacy for the uncensored is both timely and refreshing.

But what of those on the outside calling it as they see it. Those sitting behind podcast mics and on RTÉ couches, are they too giving unvarnished thoughts, or are their agendas at play?

Ronan Curran is Ben’s right-hand man on the sideline. And while stating that Cork operate in their own little bubble below in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the selector admits that “bits and pieces” said about them, and others, do succeed in penetrating stadium walls.

The bits and pieces that do get through would leave him to believe there are indeed agendas at play in the punditry community. His sole contention is that Cork members of this punditry community are not really helping the red cause with their comments of late.

When asked if he thought the coverage and attention on the inter-county game was a great deal sharper than his own days donning the No.6 shirt, Curran replied: “Ah yeah, sure, you can't say anything now. You can't say or do anything.

“I suppose when you're down here and you're working, you're in a bubble as such. Obviously, there'll be bits and pieces that are said that’d come back to you, you'd hear about them and stuff like that.

“We can't do anything about that. Whatever's said or done outside the camp, we probably can't make any difference. All we can do is try and get better on the pitch.” 

To be absolutely clear, Curran doesn’t name-check a single Cork pundit during the course of the conversation. The following are just a sample collection of what his former team-mates have been saying about the Cork set-up he is a part of and their first-round Munster opponents Tipperary.

Patrick Horgan, on RTÉ’s League Sunday highlights programme, said Cork were “caught” by Tipp in last year’s All-Ireland final, despite the fact that 15 points separated the teams at full-time. Donal Óg Cusack, on the same platform, said nobody “rises or falls faster than Tipperary”.

And then, on the Irish Examiner podcast the day after Cork’s League final defeat, the county’s 1999 All-Ireland winning captain, Mark Landers, delivered the following Cork verdict.

“I don’t think there was any shadow-boxing, I think that’s as good as maybe this current structure is. I think they [new management] are learning on the hoof,” Landers began.

“Pat [Ryan] got a team that was struggling, Ben hasn’t got a team that was struggling. Ben has got a team that is up there as second favourites for the All-Ireland. You don’t have to change a whole pile. But there definitely is a little bit of nuances yesterday.

“Only for a poxy goal and Shane Hynes and the whistle, where we got four or five handy frees, like six points to no score after 10 minutes, 0-10 to 1-1, and then 1-11 to 1-2, this wasn’t an U12 game at all, this was a National Hurling League final. When you’re playing U12, you’ll struggle with the breeze, but putting up the breeze as an excuse for the performance, that cuts no ice with nobody.” 

Back to Curran. Are there opinions he would apply weight to and opinions he wouldn’t?

“Yeah, you would, and I suppose the media is funny. There's so many podcasts around and stuff like that, and a lot of fellas are playing their own agendas for their counties. That gets a bit annoying at times. We kind of think maybe sometimes we could get a bit more help out there from our own lads,” he remarked.

“But no, our whole focus is to do better out here, get better ourselves, try and get every last per cent out of it.” 

To Tipp and to Thurles. The Premier haven’t bettered Cork in the Munster round-robin since 2019. His admiration for Liam Cahill’s side lies in their versatility. It was that versatility that fed into the stunning All-Ireland final result of last July.

“You obviously need your different plans for whatever way they set up. That's the beauty of Tipp really, they've played in all different ways. They've played 15 on 15. They played the sweeper. They play with one of their midfielders dropping back on the centre-back, and their centre-back dropping,” Curran continued.

“We have to look at all these options that they have and that they're good at playing, and see what we can do to disrupt that and get the best out of our team against that.

“I love Cork-Tipp games. It's what I grew up on, going up to Thurles. My father, my grandfather watching these games, going to these games.”

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