'We'll go to win every game we play' says Cork's Séan Meehan ahead of top-flight tilt
Pictured at the launch of Rebel Réalta at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh were Sciath na Scol chairperson David Collins, Cork camogie player Orlaith Cahalane, Cork ladies' footballer Rosie Corkery, Cork hurling captain Darragh Fitzgibbon, Cork footballer Seán Meehan, and Sciath na Scol secretary Kate O'Callaghan.
If Cork’s Division 1 mentality next spring is trained on top flight survival, then they’ll have already lost, according to corner-back Séan Meehan.
For the first time since 2016, the Cork footballers will begin their season in Division 1 of the League next January.
John Cleary’s charges rejoin the spring elite at a time when the quality gap between the first and second divisions appears to have narrowed, what with just one team over the past four years - Monaghan, in 2026 - going straight back down the year after they were promoted in the other direction.
This trend marks a significant departure in the fortunes of those arriving from Division 2, given in the six seasons before that - 2017 to 2022 - seven of the promoted 12 teams lasted no more than a single season in Division 1.
“It’s not even to stay up there, we aim to be competitive. Maybe the narrative people might like to pedal would be to survive. But if you go with that mentality, you're probably losing already,” said Meehan, who started all six of Cork’s championship outings this year.
“We'll go to win every game we play. That would be our mentality. We're not looking to be there just to make up the numbers.”
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The above mindset is not the product of a progressive 2026 campaign where Division 2 promotion was followed by championship consistency in downing Donegal away and Meath at home.
The above mindset, Meehan insisted, has always existed within the collective.
“We’ve had that mindset for the last few years where we felt we could compete and beat anyone. Maybe this year, things clicked a little bit more.
“Going up, you gain familiarity with the players that are playing in Division 1. As a defender, you can gain a bit of experience of having marked a forward in the League that you might come across later in the championship, whereas before, you might be meeting them for the first time in championship.
“Just seeing the different traits and habits of teams, and then plan and figure out how to get the better of them.
“Operating at a higher level, it hopefully will improve us and help us come championship time when it matters most” Reflections on 2026 all arrive at the same frustrating conclusion. Disappointment with their All-Ireland quarter-final exit, disappointment at failing to put their strongest foot forward in the quarter-final.
“We just didn’t play well,” Meehan said of the 0-23 to 0-18 Mayo loss.
“A lot of players would have felt we just didn't perform. Look, if you perform and you're beaten, you say fair enough. But if you don't perform, then you leave with regrets. We have quite a few regrets from that game.
“It was a wide-open championship, so I would have said any team that got to the quarters was capable of winning the All-Ireland. Every team believed that.
“We knew Mayo were a quality side going into the game. We knew we had to be at our best to beat them, and we just weren't.”
Discarding the Division 3 League title won in the Covid season of 2020, no member of the Cork football camp is in possession of a single piece of meaningful senior inter-county silverware. To correct this damning statistic is the motivation behind all they do.
“We're maybe ticking little boxes off as we go along. The current player group has been there for a while now. We want to win something,” continued the Kiskeam clubman.
“We got promotion this year. The aim isn't to compete or to perform, it's to win. People talk about participation. At high-level sport, that's not the case. You want to win, and that's it. You want to finish up and have something to show for it, so that's probably a big aim for a lot of players within the group. To win something that would mean something big to us.”
Meehan, who described departed backroom member Kevin Murray as an “excellent coach who made a really massive impact”, doesn’t see the need for the additional rule changes - four-point goal, ban on fisted points, a limit of three consecutive handpasses -that will be trialed during the upcoming third-level leagues.
“What we have at the moment is excellent. I don't think we've had a better inter-county championship than what we just had.
“Your proper defending and your proper attacking is back. All those traits and skills of the game are back to the fore. Not that I'm against any changes to the game, but I think the game is in excellent shape at the moment.”
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