'We'll get a few letters...': Ben O'Connor braced for another Cork fallout

Cork manager has a sense of what's coming - which is why is naturally positive disposition will help him look forward, not back

TOUGH DAY: Cork manager Ben O'Connor suffering in the final stages of Saturday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final loss to Galway at Croke Park. Pic: Ryan Byrne, Inpho

Ben O’Connor knows the post-mortem will be gruesome but he insisted he’s “a glass half full kind of fella”.

Saturday's type of Cork defeat has been seen before. It pre-dated the Newtownshandrum man’s term but it was also evident when their scores from play seized up in the second half of the Munster final to the point that they didn’t score from the 38th minute.

And O’Connor is braced for what's coming. “There’ll be a lot of fellas who will have all the answers and we'll get that. We’ll get a few letters during the week telling us where we’re all going wrong, we’ll get a few phone calls, a few messages. We'll take that and we'll drive on.” 

It’s easy believe this will be an unpleasant experience that will be difficult to park but O’Connor was already insisting it was in his rearview mirror.

“I'm a glass half full kind of fella. That's done and dusted. We'll be sick for that for the next few days, next couple of weeks, maybe even until Christmas. Once the boys get back going again, that's all forgotten about and we're just driving on.” 

Of course, O’Connor would have to say these things and Cork followers will want to believe him. But they’ve been bitten before and seen their team dominated in the second half once too often.

“We've outworked teams as well this year,” O’Connor pointed out. “On days these things will happen. This hasn’t happened all year, we've been fairly good on the work side of it all year.

“But the fellas are just a small little bit flat today for whatever reason. At this level, if you're only a percentage off all the teams, they're trying to make out that there’s a gulf, a big difference in class between different teams. There isn't at this level, the top four and five teams, there's only a percentage here and there, and we were off that today.” 

Hit for nine scores on the bounce in the third quarter, Cork were bludgeoned. “I was just hoping that some fella goes on and he's in a bit of form, that he gets on a couple of balls, just to try and break momentum,” sighed O’Connor. “Some days it happens, some days it doesn't.

“Some of our subs came on and got a couple of shots off, they didn't go over the bar. A couple of goal chances, they didn't get them. I'll have to watch it back on television again. Not for a while, but we'll watch it back again.” 

It’ll be one video nasty but a necessary evil of a first step in the recovery.