'Underdogs experience stood to me when I made my Cork debut in a Munster final in Killarney'

FIRST things first, he’s still playing.

When TG4 began advertising a new series of Underdogs recently it didn’t take long for the mind to drift to the first series way back in 2004 and some of the stories that emerged from that win over Kerry, the All-Ireland champions of the time.

The legacy of that Underdogs team since has been dominated a little by Kieran Donaghy, yet there were other journeys that were just as remarkable.

Like Pearse O’Neill, as forceful and athletic and dynamic a fetcher and carrier of ball as Cork have had in the last 25 years and who probably defined the underdog idea in some ways, the guy who never really played minor or U21 for Cork but who went onto play in three All-Ireland finals and win one, the guy who wasn’t a star but who won an All-Star in the end.

Donaghy departed the inter-county scene with fair attention this summer.

We hadn’t come across O’Neill recently - Aghada have been off-Broadway for a few years now - and yet a quick check on their website and there the name was on the match report, togged out around the middle-third for a senior football relegation game with Newcestown only a few weeks ago.

Make any reference to it as some kind of big deal by the way - he’ll be 40 next year, has played club for over 20 years now and doesn’t intend to pack the boots away yet - and O’Neill isn’t long in disputing any special achievement award for continuing to play something he basically still loves doing.

He knows the Underdogs was part of his route to the big time (he’s watched a few episodes of the current series) and if you’re struggling with the idea of O’Neill being part of that kind of process, well that’s not really how it worked at the time.

Ask the motivation behind doing it and O’Neill didn’t quite push himself to the front of the queue through an unstoppable desire to put himself in the shop window for Cork or anything so dramatic.

Mickey Ned O’Sullivan needed midfielders and rang around looking for help, Conor Counihan threw out the name of this strapping lad from his own club Aghada who wasn’t caught up with any inter-county action and O’Sullivan made a phonecall and told him be in Limerick for a challenge game in a few days.

He marked John Galvin, did okay and got drafted into the group.

“I felt a bit guilty to be honest,” he says now.

“I just came in and some of the lads had been there for a few months.

“But it was really enjoyable, we had great craic and it was great to go down to Tralee under lights and win.

“It gave me confidence I suppose alright then, we had played an inter-county team and not looked out of place, but there was no great plan or anything by doing it, it was just a challenge that looked interesting and fun and allowed me to play football matches.

“Getting to train with the coaches and the players involved was an experience though. Loved it.”

It may have seemed like an overnight success but it didn’t happen anything like as directly as that afterwards either.

He can’t honestly remember trials for Cork seniors after the Underdogs and even though he was flying for an Aghada team who reached the county semi-final, 2005 was more about a trip around Australia with friends than any inter-county experience.

He came back in 2006 to generate rave reviews on the club scene that spring and this time the call came from Billy Morgan a few weeks out from the Munster final.

Two challenge games with Clare and Westmeath later and the rookie got added to the Cork team so that his first competitive match with Cork at any level was a Munster final in Killarney.

He was 26, and as he puts himself, probably felt his time had passed at that stage.

Anyway, it was very much sink or swim and yet he doesn’t recall much of the game other than marking his fellow underdog Donaghy at one stage - he speaks mainly of Donaghy’s ability to hang in the air, to seem to find extra time in the jump more than a normal person – and just being told to do the simple things right in the lead-up.

There were conversations at the time saying he’d be lucky to last half an hour being thrown into that sort of environment with no experience.

“It was a step up in pace, obviously, to what I was used to, but you just concentrate on doing the basics, and I had been playing senior football with Aghada for a few years by then against the Cork players, so I had experience.

I suppose I had that edge where I wanted to prove myself as well, to make up for lost time in some way.”

What followed was a period in the top-tier of counties at elite level.

A major part of any Cork gameplan at the time were O’Neill’s rampaging bursts down the middle of teams and a fair percentage came against the old and main enemy.

There was certainly no inferiority, O’Neill remembers.

“I wouldn’t say there was cockiness at all but it became normal then for us to reach All-Ireland semi-finals and finals, to beat Kerry in Cork, to beat the top counties.

“There was a sense that we’d be gearing up to play August and September, no matter what happened early in the year.

“That we had the players to compete and win and we were good enough.

“I never really felt like I missed out by not being involved earlier, it was just great to come into that bunch of players who were very determined and focused.”

Cork ended in 2013 but football (and hurling – he has played for Imokilly in the past) goes on.

There’ve been changes.

When O’Neill came on the scene first there were one-v-one fetching competitions at midfield but goalkeepers won’t take chances on 50/50 balls and look to ping passes into space (a recurring nightmare now, a young runner at midfield) rather than float balls into the air.

The Aghada team now are young and promising compared to the experienced hardened group he came into but he sees potential there.

It mightn’t be the absolute be-all and end-all it once was but he still loves the competing and being able to play.

The underdog story goes on.