Post Championship Counselling

2nd Aug 2011

 Oh dear. It’s barely August and both hurlers and footballers are out of the championship so for the first time in years Rebels will be sitting around at home during August twiddling their thumbs looking for things to do instead of talking excitedly about trips to Croke Park and discussing their own preferred starting line-ups.

While we’ve got used to the fact that the hurlers aren’t making All-Ireland finals nowadays the footballers have followed suit with a slightly unexpected loss to the Connaught champions last Sunday. Mayo were deserved winners and we hope they go on to win Sam Maguire. Mayo is another inoffensive county starved of the big time success we are used to down here.

Bishopstown Billy's summer has taken a dive

They had never beaten us in the championship before so who could begrudge the lads a big day out. Have you ever met a langer from Mayo? Thought so (few of us have actually met Louis Walsh an d what would he know about 'football').

The analysing around the county online and offline has been ferocious. Some reasonable. Some hot headed and irrational.

The similarities to the hurlers’ lightning start against their own Connaught opposition is uncanny. For the first fifteen minutes every time Paudie O’Sullivan got his Cloyne claws on the sliothar against Galway it meant work for the scoreboard operators. Then it all slipped away.
 

And the minors got hockeyed by Dublin on Monday. They're out too.

With Cork’s explosive start on Sunday it wasn’t unreasonable to consider the possibility that Mayo would be sent home on the same bus of misery as Down the previous week. Perhaps that’s where the Cork mindset was distracted.

The truth behind the footballers exit is most likely a combination of many problems converging on one day and not a single issue: injuries to key players, fatigue from the previous week’s game, Mayo’s ability to ramp it up in the second half, a slippy Croke Park, the unusual mindset of being defending champions, overreliance on hand passing and a ref who seemed to blow his whistle every time Noel O’Leary inhaled or blinked are all in there as viable contenders.

Sully knows all about pain...and eating hurleys

As a result many Rebels will not have been able for TV analysts on Sunday night trying to out do each other with tabloid-mouthed superlatives to describe Cork’s defeat. TV3’s pundits revelled in Cork’s beating especially Dublin’s Senan Connell whose judgements are usually as empty as the medal rack on his mantle piece. This time his smile was as wide as the gap since his his own county had senior success.

When a giant in GAA goes down everyone wants a piece of the told-you-so pie. Cork “favourite” Joe Brolly has been desperately waiting for his slice for years and he’ll feast on this rare defeat for a while yet. To be fair to him he is well used to doing the loaves-and-the-fishes with very little – the hay he has made from just a single All-Ireland medal through his media work should be taught in business schools.

Finbarr reacts to Miskella's sending off

Rebels have to be rational though. What is undeniable about this Cork team is the effort and energy that they have put into playing for their county. People often forget that all the gym work, training sessions, team meetings and big match days are completely and utterly voluntary on the players’ behalf. Dual players like Eoin Cadogan have more days of the year playing or training for Cork and club than not.

Chelsea are interested in signing Madonna to boost jersey sales which have taken a dive.

In times where players in the pre-Madonna Premiership are paid thousands per minute to fall around on the grass like new born lambs and put their employer before their country with the increasingly accepted excuse that it prolongs their career, the commitment GAA players show to their county is extraordinary in comparison. Ask yourself if you’d do it. 

Counihan: Still a hero for ending the 20 year drought

In the Cork footballers’ case it is even more mind blowing. Having reached the last four stage SIX years in a row (that’s six eight or nine month-long seasons without a break) the amount of man hours put in by Conor Counihan, Billy Morgan, their backroom teams and of course the players is truly astonishing.

Thankfully this hasn’t all been in vain. If they hadn’t won Sam Maguire last year and then crashed out to Mayo this year things would be a lot grimmer but we are blessed with a team that is now stuffed with young All-Ireland and double league winners and the future is far from dim. True, some soul searching will have to be done but this is no time for assuming we are back to the old days of self-defeat. 
 

Miss Cork 2011: go take a look at their gallery to take the edge off the effects of the weekend. Click here

Of course this doesn’t have to be the end of your sporting worship of Cork for the summer. We recommend filling the void by going to Turners Cross next Friday night (August 5th). Cork City take on Dublin’s Shelbourne in a first-against-second place clash at 7.45pm that is vital for City’s promotion prospects. Things are looking good but inflicting a defeat on the Dubs would bring some much needed sporting sunshine to Leeside.

Chins up. Rebels Abú!