Red-hot Rebels must now add league silverware
FAVOURITES: Cork's Darragh Fitzgibbon handpasses the sliotar as referee Chris Mooney ducks out of the way. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
To ask ‘where are Cork’ seems a strange question in light of recent results being exclusively emphatic, but we’re going to throw it out there nonetheless.
The reply of ‘Cork are in a league final the weekend after next, duh’ is not exactly what we had in mind.
No, where are Cork? Are they as far ahead as the 12- and 15-point winning margins over Galway and Clare suggest? Are they as lifting as 10 goals in two games indicates? Or, is the “shadow-boxing” of others, as Pat Ryan termed it on Saturday night, inflating Cork’s spring stock?
And, most pertinently, of all: are Cork close to arriving at a championship 15 stronger than that which walked behind the band on July 21 of last year?
We’ll come back to this last question and attempt to parse through the others first.
Cork are executing a level of intent at present that the other few contenders for Liam MacCarthy are either not interested in or capable of right now. Cork, unlike Limerick, their chief sparring partner for Liam, are not picking and choosing when to make a statement.
Where Liam Cahill and Tipp have repeatedly told us they want league silverware, their league final opponents have not voiced such ambition. Then again, Cork didn’t have to.
You don’t start 12 of your All-Ireland final team for a de facto league semi-final unless you’re gung-ho on reaching the decider.
What Pat Ryan has told us, and told us again on Saturday, is that part of the reason they lost last year’s All-Ireland was because they weren’t clinical enough in converting green flag opportunities into actual green flags.
That failing cost them again in their one defeat to date of 2025. Against Tipp last month, and against whom they’ve a chance to correct the record in a fortnight, they managed one goal from a possible six.
Since then, a rush. Six in Ennis. Four more on Saturday. Four across the two outings for Brian Hayes, whose injury late against Galway took ever so slightly from the evening such is his ever-increasing value.
Hayes netted the opener following a wicked turn of step to wrong foot both Padraic Mannion and otherwise impressive debutant Joshuan Ryan. His directness then created the second for Darragh Fitzgibbon.
The pair fed a 2-12 to 0-12 half-time Cork lead, despite the fact the hosts had hurled into a gale. The second half, thus, was absent of aggression and doubt.
Fitzgibbon is relevant to so much of what we asked at the outset.
He was guilty of overplaying possession on Saturday, particularly in the opening half when repeatedly leaving Gavin Lee in his slipstream.
He was guilty of repeatedly chasing green flags when white was the obvious option. It spoke to Cork’s current attitude. Jugular first, safety second.
Fitzgibbon’s pace when taking off from the half-forward line, rather than his usual midfield berth, offers Cork an additional avenue to goal. Ditto moving Declan Dalton a line forward too.
But with Seamus Harnedy seeing his first minutes of 2025 in the second half, not to mind the debut form of young Diarmuid Healy, are Cork sufficiently stuffed in the half-forward line that they would be strongest with Fitzgibbon back at midfield to partner the commanding and now goal-contributing Tim O’Mahony.
Mark Coleman was another to make his first appearance of 2025. His time managed, he was pulled on 39 minutes. His replacement, Cormac O’Brien, one of three subs to find the target, is not letting that No.7 shirt go lightly.
On this evening of comebacks, watched by a crowd of 20,010, Alan Connolly saw involvement for the first time since the Limerick stalemate at the beginning of February.
He pointed, won a converted free, almost forced a goal, and yet faces the tallest order to unseat one of the inside line incumbents.
One of those, Patrick Horgan, now wears the title of National League all-time leading scorer. His 1-9 total, the 1-3 from-play part benefiting from the quality of delivery by Rob Downey’s half-back line and the space created by a half-forward line where Shane Barrett thrived, took his total to 26-673 and past Eddie Keher.
Hoggie holds many titles. He’d prefer to hold silverware. He and Cork are in an incredibly positive, if not yet completely settled space.
They need to bring league silverware into that space. They’ve invested too much into this spring to come out the far side empty-handed.
A first Cork-Tipp league final since 1960 demands a first Cork triumph in 27 years. A sixth consecutive league final defeat cannot be countenanced and won’t be tolerated.
As for Galway, they were a footnote on Saturday and will likely be a footnote come summer too.
P Horgan (1-9, 0-6 frees); T O’Mahony, D Fitzgibbon (1-1 each); S Barrett (0-4); B Hayes (1-0); D Dalton (0-2, 0-1 free); E Twomey, B Roche, C O’Brien, A Connolly, S Harnedy (0-1 each).
E Niland (0-7, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ‘65); C Mannion (0-5); C Cooney (0-3, 0-1 free); R Burke (0-2); T Monaghan, T Killeen, C Whelan, J Flynn (free), D McLoughlin (0-1 each).
P Collins; S O’Donoghue, D Cahalane, N O’Leary; C Joyce, R Downey, M Coleman; T O’Mahony, E Twomey; S Barrett, D Fitzgibbon, B Roche; D Dalton, P Horgan, B Hayes.
C O’Brien for Coleman (39); S Harnedy for Roche (46); A Connolly for Dalton (50); S Kingston for Hayes (55, inj); D Healy for Horgan (65).
É Murphy; P Mannion, D Morrissey, J Ryan; C Fahy, G Lee, S Morgan; T Monaghan, S Linnane; R Burke, T Killeen, C Mannion; C Whelan, B Concannon, E Niland.
J Flynn for Concannon (HT); D McLoughlin for Niland, C Cooney for Whelan (both 46); R Glennon for Mannion (52); TJ Brennan for Morgan (63).
C Mooney (Dublin).
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