Cork footballers find form they should have taken to Killarney

The Cork footballers reframed their season after a disappointing Munster final performance against Kerry

Chris Óg Jones scored a point, assisted three, and was fouled for two more in Cork's comeback victory over Meath. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Given how Killarney did not go well for them, the Cork footballers realised the importance of reframing the rest of their season.

Instead of allowing Killarney and the old failings that resurfaced there to define Cork’s summer, the players discarded the Munster final defeat. Priorities were rewritten.

What came after was the “real stuff”. The real stuff required the sort of performance they did not deliver in Killarney.

It was a funny old weekend for the provincial champions. Kerry saw plenty of red, may yet see further red, and are now 70 minutes from summer removal. Roscommon, meanwhile, reminded us all of their ongoing inability to replicate Connacht championship performances against counties not from Connacht.

As for Cork and Galway, provincial final disappointments were successfully parked and rendered irrelevant where the rest of their respective seasons were concerned. They relaunched and roused themselves for the real stuff. They are both 70 minutes from an All-Ireland quarter-final.

“Killarney, it's a tough place to go, but if you go down there and play to the system that John and the two Kevins (Walsh and Murray) have prepared us for, and if we executed that and still lost, we'd come out of there and go, that's fair enough,” Cork forward Chris Óg Jones explained.

“But the thing is we went down there and we didn't do the plan as players that we were meant to do, and we lost badly. It was an opportunity and we failed to get it, but plenty of teams have won provincial championships and had a poor final end to the year, so that was kind of the message.

“It's not how the provincials go, it's the end of the year that is really the most important thing. We could have won against Kerry, lost against Meath, lost again in three weeks’ time, we'd be out of the competition, and it would have been a terrible year. So, this is the real stuff now, and this is where we want to put the performances in.” 

Surviving Colm O’Callaghan’s red card on 51 minutes gave Saturday’s three-point win a real sweetness. Arguably more satisfying again was Cork rediscovering the version of themselves that brought them out of Division 2 and brought such expectation across county bounds to Killarney a fortnight ago.

“I go back to the game-plan the lads set out for us to follow. I felt against Meath we did that. Our attacks, we worked on them a lot the last two weeks. After the Munster final, we just felt we were flat, we weren't moving, we were standing still, and against Meath I felt we were much better there,” Jones continued.

“We had some top-class performances Saturday in the forward line. I definitely wasn't one of them, but that's the beauty of this team that if one or two forwards are having an off day, you have another one or two that are going to step up and have a big performance, and that's what happened against Meath.

“Going a man down, we don't panic, we just stay with the system, we work extra hard, we try and kill momentum where we can with the ball and tap over scores every time.” 

Jones (27) has been the headline act on plenty of occasions throughout 2026. Emerging from the spring as their 3-19 top-scorer from play would attest to such. His 2-2 in the Munster semi-final against Tipp had him top of the charts on that day too.

The 0-1 beside his name on Saturday was no headline act. But the 0-1 also told little of his contribution. The Uibh Laoire clubman assisted 0-3 and was fouled for 0-2.

It was his inside colleague Steven Sherlock who provided the magic and no end of marvellous two-point kicks. Jones has nothing but admiration for the self-confidence of the Barrs man who responded to Munster final periphery with an awesome 14-point haul.

“Steve, one thing he definitely doesn't lack is confidence anyway. He backs himself 100% and it's something I actually admire massively about him. He could go out and kick 10 wides, and he'll stay kicking. And then the next day he'd go out and he could kick 15 points, that's just the way he is. It's a brilliant trait to have, really, to have that confidence in yourself.” 

The mindset switch post-Killarney delivered. The mindset now needs further recalibrating to grab the opportunity and shortest road to football’s last eight.

“The important thing now is just not to get ahead of yourself. You've another game to play against what is going to be a really, really top-class team; it could be Donegal away. Go into that game just in All-Ireland final-type attitude and try and get the win.”