In a season that has been defined by a plethora of what might have beens, it was cathartic to bare witness to a day of what was in the Gaelic Grounds last Sunday. The previous few weeks had been a rollercoaster where the Cork senior teams had done what you’d always want your teams to do: be there or thereabouts coming down the stretch. However, with the exception of the Waterford game down the Páirc and the Louth game up in Navan, they hadn’t managed to get over the line.
From a purely footballing perspective, we had that same sense of frustration going right through the league. Games against Meath, Dublin, Louth and Derry were there to be won, but Cork didn’t win them and so went with them the chance of promotion.
There have been so many two point swings and turning points that have gone the other way recently that one had grown accustomed to the inevitability of them. What made it all the more flabbergasting was that so many of them were down to glitches in Cork’s play as opposed to being cut apart by the opposition.
The odd decision has also gone against us, but I feel that it would be disingenuous to get caught up in any of them for too long. The tightness of almost every game only magnifies the spotlight on the man in black, but if a team is to truly progress, they need to examine the multitude of moments that make up a game as opposed to fretting over the one moment that can be leaned on for excuses. The pundits and the patrons can discuss them, debate them and rage against them, but the respective groups will always judge themselves on performance as opposed to the whimsical nature of fortune.
Thus, while we may have been a bit thick with David Gough over the penalty decision against Kerry three weeks ago, it still doesn’t change the fact that Paul Geaney should never have found himself in that position in the first place as Cork were in complete control of possession just prior to the incident.
Mistakes, both internal and external, are inevitable; it’s how you respond to them that matters. And Cork have responded to them all as you’d want them to, by keeping on playing, by sticking their chin out for more, all year, even if they haven’t always found what they were looking for.
And so it was that last Sunday seemed destined to fit in to that frustratingly familiar pattern. Cork had played excellently in the first half, and probably should have been another couple of scores ahead. When Mayo pressed on after the interval, Cork were on the ropes. Then Tommy Conroy took full advantage of yet another glitch in Cork’s play, and that seemed to be that.
As the roar of the Mayo faithful grew louder and louder, we steeled ourselves for a journey home that would focus on the positives of the day. The way Cork defended, the way they moved it at pace when they could, the aggression in their play that led to multiple turnovers, the fact that for the first time in a long time they looked like they were playing the modern game, the fact that there was another day out to come.
But that wasn’t that. Colm O’Callaghan raged against fortune and we finally got the rub of the green before Cork went on to totally dominate the rest of the game to record their most important win in a decade. Yes, the late late show against Kerry in 2020 was a magnificent moment, but it was soured by what happened afterwards. This win was coming. It wasn’t out of the blue. It wasn’t something out of nothing. This was one that we could share in it as many of us spilled onto the pitch afterwards before we really knew what we were doing, even if we had just realised that we’d be at home this weekend.
It has really been a long night for Cork football, a darkness that seemed like it might never lift – not that it has totally lifted yet, obviously. And it was fitting that Ian Maguire was the man who spoke afterwards, as nobody has raged against that darkness more consistently or more passionately than he, and nobody will be looking forward more than him to what’s to come this weekend.
Because Roscommon are a very, very good football team and are rightly favourites to win the game. In many ways they are the antithesis of what Cork are as they consistently get the very, very best out of what they have. Ian Maguire won’t need any reminder of that, nor will Brian Hurley, Ruairi Deane or Brian O’Driscoll as they were all there when the Rossies annihilated Cork back in 2016 in what was possibly the darkest day in modern Cork football.
They’ll all remember what happened three years later too, again in Páirc Uí Rinn. Cork seemed to have made a bit of progress as they performed decently against Tyrone and Dublin in the Super 8s before Roscommon fired in another four goals in the final group game, a game without any ramifications.
There will be plenty of ramifications on Saturday, however. Cork finished fourth in Division 2 of the league back in the spring, making them the twelfth best team in the country. Here they are now in the last twelve of the championship. Last weekend they took control of their own destiny. Now they have a chance to beat another top eight team to really prove that they’re top eight material themselves.
Let’s hope that knockout football brings the very best out of them.
John Coleman
The Little All-Ireland 