When you’ve won 23 senior football medals with Cork, between club and county, it’s not easy to see them losing to Tipperary for the first time in 72 years, although the bigger worry for Stephen O’Brien is that it may not be a temporary blip.
“Unacceptable” is one word he uses, while suggesting “something has to change, radically”. Not that O’Brien – Cork’s All Star defender from their back-to-back All-Irelands of 1989-90 – was entirely surprised by Sunday’s two-point defeat at Semple Stadium.
He was manager of the Nemo Rangers team defeated by Clonmel Commercials in last year’s Munster club football final, albeit by a late goal, and several of those players featured for Tipperary on Sunday.
“It was certainly a big shock to a lot of people in Cork,” he says. “But personally, I wouldn’t like to sensationalise it either. All the talk was that training had been going very well, so that made it a shock to the system.
“And given the fact Tipperary were down so many players, the general feeling was Cork would have enough for them. But in fairness to Tipp, they went out with a game plan, and for the fellas who did stick around, and for Liam Kearns, it was a fantastic result for them.
“But certainly from an intercounty point of view, I couldn’t see Cork conceding 3-15. So there’s a whole lot more at play there. It’s too big a score to concede, in the modern game. Especially when you hear Cork have been working hard on their defensive play, and had an awful lot of men behind the ball on Sunday, and very few inside in the forwards. Then you look at the scoreboard.
“So as far as I’m concerned, it has to go back to the basics, the basic skills. There’s no point defending in numbers if you’re conceding 3-15. I don’t care who you’re playing against. It’s all very well to have 15 fellas behind the ball, but then they’re not able to win their own ball. They have to learn that. There’s no point just having them standing there.
“Then look at Tipp, and okay they conceded 2-16, so it was very high-scoring game, and maybe the defensive frailties were there for them as well. But from what I’m hearing there could have been another two or three Tipp goals as well, and that’s ridiculous. It could quite conceivably have been 5-15. That’s unacceptable for intercounty football, as far as I’m concerned. It’s a hurling score.”
Part of O’Brien’s frustration is the potential within Cork football should be as strong as ever, particularly given their fine record at under-21 level in recent years: “People are saying there’s a great bunch of players coming through at under-21, and there are a couple, but you see other teams, too. But then Cork have beaten Kerry regularly at under-21, so maybe it’s time to throw in more of these young fellas. Cork have won five of the last under-21 titles in Munster. Where have all those players gone?
“So something has to change, radically, whether that’s the mindset of the players and the management as much as the Cork county board. The finger is being pointed at everybody, although at the end of the day, this group of players have to put their hands up, and the management too, and say things have gone wrong. You can’t concede 3-15 in your first game in the Munster championship, when you say you’ve trained exceptionally hard. I’ve no doubt they have trained hard, but that’s unforgiveable, when you hear Tipp could have had a few more goals. That’s the biggest stat that jumps out for me. The Dublins and Kerrys of this world just would not concede that score.
“And it’s all very well that Cork came back in the second half, with a 10-minute spell, but they were playing with the wind in the first half, and went in at half-time seven points down. There’s something radically wrong there, and the players and management have to take a step back, recognise that, and get back to basics. Because that’s certainly not acceptable in my mind.”
One minor point of consolation is that the last time Cork lost to Tipperary in the championship, in 1944, they came out the following year and won the All-Ireland.
“Yeah, that came out here this morning, that we won the All-Ireland in 1945. We’re all hoping it’s a blip. But when you’ve a poor league campaign, and last year was poor, then the blips are happening just a little too often. So the management need to start getting it right. I don’t care how they do that, but get a result. Maybe the confidence can get back up by winning, and maybe that might get the Cork supporters back on board too.
“But you saw the crowd in Thurles on Sunday, aroud 2,500. Are you asking me are Cork people are following the footballers at the moment? There’s your answer right there.”
“They also went into the back door last summer and were destroyed by Kildare. We’re just not producing on the day, in the league, or the championship. We have to get over this, but the mood is not great in Cork now, I must say. That’s two bad defeats, for the hurlers and the footballers, in the last few weeks. It’s a results driven game, so there’s no point talking things up in the camp, being happy with the training and this and that. Get the results, and forget about talking until then.”
