Less Mayo More Red Sauce

30th Jul 2014

Brian Cuthbert’s team showed a marked improvement in their defeat of Sligo last Saturday evening and to the relief of Cork fans with pacemakers, high blood pressure and irrationally-angry-GAA-fan syndrome they never really looked in trouble.

For us to be knocked out of the championship by Sligo, a county so behind the times that even their jerseys are still in black and white, would have been absolutely morto.

You may notice a subtle difference between footballers and hurlers when it comes to post-match interviews. The big ball boys will regularly mention that they’re happy for the team, the panel, the management whereas hurlers rarely leave out the fact that they are delighted for the fans – possibly a directive from JBM.

The footballers can be forgiven for not mentioning the thousands of fans who do follow them – there just isn’t the same level of trust and confidence there. The parade before the Munster football final was a case in point. It was a muted affair compared to the raucous roaring that met the hurlers on their Munster final march.

We must get fully behind the boys this weekend as they go into their quarter-final clash against Mayo as underdogs. Confidence is undoubtedly a crucial element to any team’s chances of success and us fans can do far more than we might get credit for by really getting behind the boys when their backs are to the wall on Sunday.

Mayo are a very good side but historically they, of all the counties, have suffered most from weak minds in crucial games. Their last success was in 1951 and we’ve won it four times since then. The team and us fans can pull off a surprise by attacking the weak Mayo mind set. H'on lads.

Cork V Mayo. @ 4pm Croke Park