Someday

In the end, the Clare game didn’t really feel like it was as close as the scoreboard suggested. Now had Damien Cahalane’s late effort managed to make its way home or had Darragh Fitzgibbon squared the ball to Alan Connolly or had Connolly’s effort gone under as opposed to over the bar or had Shane Barrett passed or scored then the tone of the next few paragraphs would be different. But, to paraphrase Merrill Glass, they didn’t, and everything is just hanging on by a thread.

Was it an improvement on Walsh Park? Of course it was. But that fact in itself only made what had happened the week before even more stark. Because that was the day that Cork really ceded control of their own destiny. The fact is, Cork should not have been in that position in the first place. But they were.

The thing is though, Clare was creaking. For that twenty-minute spell either side of half time, they were just as vulnerable as we were. And, unlike in Walsh Park, we got a run on them. There were plenty of chances and while a few went abegging, a 7-point lead, at home after finding a bit of mojo wasn’t too bad at all. Gaps were opening up down the middle of the Clare defence and there was nothing to suggest that they were going to be plugged quickly either.

7-point leads haven’t been very kind to Cork over the years. I’m thinking 1972 in Croke Park, or 1991 in Thurles when Declan Ryan put paid to Jim Cashman adding another gold watch to his collection. It’s obviously not a lead that’s insurmountable in hurling, but with half an hour to go, and with things going well, it is the type of cushion that may lead you to believe that you will be going down the stretch ahead as opposed to chasing. But it wasn’t.

The sending off of Seán O’Donoghue may have seemed like the turning point, but the reality is that control of the game was lost before that as Clare whittled down Cork’s lead without having to do too much. A bit of physical dominance here, and a soft goal there and it had all changed in a blink of an eye as Cork stopped doing what was working and fell back into the old habits. Had O’Donoghue avoided Shane O’Donnell, or vice-versa, then perhaps his outstanding block may have been another turning point in a topsy turvy game. But we’ll never know.

Year after year it seems as if we’re watching the same thing on repeat, a Cork team that just cannot change the momentum of a game when the need is greatest, a team that can’t find its way out of trouble, a team that negates some of its outstanding work all too quickly and all too easily.

In reality, the rest of the game was a forgone conclusion, despite the madness that followed. The 2 goals that were conceded were bad. Very bad. Dónal Óg Cusack highlighted one of them on the Sunday Game at the weekend and it would be impossible to argue with a single word that he said. The basic collective defensive duties, like moving towards the man in possession and trusting that a teammate will fill the gap that you have vacated, were just not there. Then again, how many natural defenders do we have?

There was another video about Dónal Óg that caught my eye during the week. The always interesting Ray Boyne had a montage up, showing some of his finest moments. About 35 seconds in, Cusack gets a clip towards the end of Cork’s win over Waterford in Thurles in 1999. What stands out is how Fergal Ryan and Brian Corcoran are straight in to let the Waterford man know that such behaviour is unacceptable. It made me think of an incident late on in the Clare game where Timmy O’Mahony was getting hounded by 3 Clare men in front of the South Stand. Timmy was on his own, and on his own he stayed. Peter Duggan even patted him on the back after it was over. How times have changed.

A grim fortnight was made a little bit darker by the loss suffered by the U20 team in Thurles that seemed to highlight the same perennial problems that Cork hurling faces. After Walsh Park it was noted that the uncomfortable questions about who we are are bubbling under the surface are not for the now, but there’s every chance that they will become incredibly pertinent once the coming weekend has concluded.

Were Saturday night a one-off game, Cork might be facing into it with a bit more than a puncher’s chance, especially if Ciarán Joyce were available. However, Limerick are not the type of team who leave their chin out there long enough to be hit. They are the ultimate example of modernity, a team with a process, a style, an identity. A team that is even better than the sum of its outrageously talented parts. The type of team that don’t get caught, a team that are designed for the gruelling road of round robin hurling.

A team that swatted away Tipp with incredible ease and that possibly should never have been 9 points down against Clare considering the chances they created. A team that we know from first-hand experience are frighteningly ruthless when they encounter vulnerability.

And yet, you never know. Some day Cork may just take the chances that fall their way. Someday it might just all click. Someday we might just win a close one. A full house awaits, someday they might get what they’re looking for. Someday, they might just stop believing. And that would be the biggest tragedy of all.

John Coleman