Well, that break was needed. By everyone.
As always, life makes a bit more sense when you’re looking back over it, and there’s a fair chance that the pressure Cork was under coming into the championship may have been undervalued. That’s not in relation to the nonsense being spouted about the supposedly unstoppable nature of the Rebel juggernaut, but more to do with what they actually had to do.
Clare away and Tipp at home on successive weekends is tough enough, but the distraction of the league final was potentially a major spanner in the works. Essentially, Cork was left with three championship games in twenty-two days that they had to peak for. We can talk to infinity and beyond about the value of the league, but the reality of the situation was that Cork had to win that game. Imagine the gloom that would have engulfed us had we lost to Tipp in front of a packed Páirc after not winning a national title in twenty odd years? It would have been an apocalyptic vista.
What happened in Ennis feels like a lifetime ago and if the biggest lesson from that game was the importance of keeping fifteen players on the field, the return of Tipperary a week later confirmed it. Tipp’s commitment to the art of the dawk was baffling. By my reckoning, only two Cork players weren’t targeted. Patrick Collins, and Darragh Fitzgibbon who was standing behind the end line at the City End in splendid isolation. If the throw-in had come down to that end, things may have been similar, but different.
Anyway, Darragh McCarthy’s overenthusiastic commitment to the plan made the game what it was. Cork was far from brilliant, indeed, at times they were frustrating, bordering on feckless, but they got the job done, with ease, and then it was time to breathe.
You’d wonder how the players and management manage to maintain any type of normal life while they’re in the midst of it all. How do they switch off? How do they turn up to work, prepare for exams or even go for a cup of coffee without being crushed by the monumental pressure of it all? How do they pacify the multitudes of people who will ask them about how everything is going despite knowing that the answer they get will be as banal as it must be? How many times has Robert Downey been asked about his leg?
Every time they come out of the bubble they must long to get back into it, to be surrounded by people who know exactly how it feels, to be in the company of those who are going through the exact same thing, to be able to let their guard down a bit in the environs of Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Pairc Uí Rinn and Fota.
The round robin is the best thing that has happened to hurling in a long time, but the sheer relentlessness of it is all consuming, even for supporters. From the League Final to the re-match with Tipperary down the Páirc, it was very difficult to think about anything else. Well, more difficult than usual, anyway. How often did your mind wander, lost in scenarios of the best and worst variety, only to be disturbed by chilling bouts of normality? How often did you lie about what you were thinking about?
The last two weekends have allowed us to take stock of what’s around us but on Sunday we’ll dive back into the goldfish bowl. And this time it’s going to be even worse. Two years ago, we also had three points at this stage and didn’t accumulate anymore. Last year we had none and yet ended up in an All-Ireland Final. What we are all pining for, desperately, more than anything else, is to have another game to look forward to at 6:00 pm on 25 May.
Despite not playing for two weeks, Cork remains at the top of the pile. However, it is likely that when 4:00pm comes on Sunday that they won’t be. And there’s every chance that by 6:00pm they’ll be in third position, or in a Munster Final. It’s up to us to go through all the permutations, but we really should be taking a leaf out of the players’ book and just focusing on the games as they come. But what would we think about then?
In Limerick, we have more than enough to worry about. The biggest challenge they face this season is to begin to freshen up one of the greatest teams that has ever played the greatest game of them all. On the evidence offered in Walsh Park, they’re making a good fist of it. The starting fifteen named for Sunday is impressive, as is their bench. If Cork is to take her place amongst the nations of the world, they will have to be better than Limerick on the field, on the bench, and on the sideline.
The season might boil down to the differentiation between how good Limerick still are, how good Cork can be and how good Kilkenny actually are. We’re still a long way from figuring out that conundrum. However, there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip.
In the interim, a draw in the TUS Gaelic Grounds and a Waterford win in Thurles would help us all sleep a bit easier on Sunday night. Wishful thinking. And yet. Whatever Sunday brings, next week is destined to be another slow and torturous march towards whatever destiny awaits us.
Corcaigh abú.
John Coleman
The Little All-Ireland 