Right Here, Right Now

The recent passing of the great Teddy McCarthy gave us cause to recognise how lucky we are to have legends walking easily alongside us every single day. It’s something that we should never take for granted, something that we should never lose respect for. They are everywhere in Cork, and as we struggle to navigate our way out of the doldrums, their past achievements become all the more pertinent.

Last Tuesday week I was cycling through Tramore Valley Park when one of the greatest of them all came towards me. Billy Morgan was running up that hill at a pace that belied his 78 years. It seemed the perfect day to catch a glimpse of him after what had happened in Limerick a few days before. Because he really is the embodiment of Cork football, the manifestation of all of the vast possibilities right there in the flesh, and he lives amongst us.

Then, at half-time on Saturday, he was there again, leading out the team of ’73 just as he did a half century ago. The arrival of that great team at that moment was perfect timing in itself. Cork, as we all know, had only just began to burn off the last of the dirty petrol from the previous weekend in the five minutes before the break. The introduction of the All-Ireland champions of fifty years ago felt symbolic, like a further healing of the wound that has been weeping these past few years.

That feeling only grew in the moments after half-time as Cork finally, if briefly, reached the levels that they had the previous Sunday. They obliterated the Roscommon kick-out, and should have been out of sight were it not for bad umpiring, poor refereeing and an understandable bit of tension in the final third. When Conor Corbett finally jolted the jitters away, that should have been that. However, Cork wouldn’t be Cork were there not some twist in the tale; even when we’re at our most sublime, we’re not too far away from something ridiculous.

It all worked out though. The buzz of a win like that is one of the most potent buzzes of all, and its remnants are still bouncing around inside of our brains now as we try to rationalise the challenge that lies before us on Sunday.

In the aftermath of the drama, I saw Morgan for the third time as he traversed the corridors of the premium level, inevitably moving against the flow, his face radiating satisfaction, and with congratulations flooding his way is if it were he, and not his clubmate Kevin O’Donovan, who had registered Cork’s winning point in a truly raucous Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Everybody who was there just saw in him the essence of what we had just seen.

Cork football really is the great riddle shrouded in ambiguity. However, what Morgan has always proved is that once it is organised correctly, it can rejuvenate and thrive quickly, because the county is so vast that there just has to be talent there. When we look at him we will inevitably think of those halcyon days of 1987-1995 when Cork raged against all known history, particularly in terms of our relationship with those who still occupy part of the Beara peninsula.

Yet, his second coming in the aftermath of Larry’s flirtation with management led to our last major. He inherited a team who had lost to Limerick and Roscommon, and in his first year back in 2004 Fermanagh bested us in Croke Park. Despite that, the following year Cork would be back in the last four of the All-Ireland. And there they would stay, bar one blip, until 2012, after Conor Counihan had, eventually, succeeded him in 2008.

Twice he was the right man at the right time. Now, it would be a gross oversimplification of the past ten years to say that everything comes down to that, having the right people at the right time, but there’s no doubt that it helps the cause.

The reasons for John Cleary’s circuitous route to the top are manifold. But one of the reasons is that he wouldn’t just try and get by so he would have the honour of being Cork manager. If he was going to do the job, he wanted to do it right. He also made no secret of his desire to bring in a top coach to supplement his ideas. So in came Kevin Walsh. Throw in a recent All-Ireland winning minor and U20 team, a Sigerson team managed by Morgan and a couple of players who have had that road to Damascus moment and suddenly, Cork are getting better, quickly.

How quickly it is happening will be further determined by events on Sunday. The logical part of me looks at the players who are not available for Sunday and my heart is sore. Of course thinking of Cathail O’Mahony and Liam O’Donovan and Seán Meehan is only cloud talk, but it would be of extreme significance were both Brian Hurley and Luke Fahy to be unavailable.

Then, the romantic in me says that momentum beats all, that being battle hardened trumps a week of rest, that everything must be now.

Sunday promises to be another emotional rollercoaster. Thirty years on from one that really got away it’s time to dance with a Derry team with whom we have much in common, a team that has been building for that bit longer than we have. A Derry team that has its sights set on much bigger fish than us. A Derry team with whom we met in Division 2 earlier this year.

In a bumper weekend for football, most pundits will, understandably, get lost in the excitement of the other games. They will trust the form guide to hold true in our game so that they can soak up the drama of the other three. We’re back seeing things through our own prism though, and before Dublin tackle Mayo, we really just want Cork to have proved, again, that they are a relevant force in modern football.

Corcaigh abú.

John Coleman