Why do Cork's best young footballers pick up so many injuries?

THE last-second win over Kerry in the 2020 Munster Championship at Páirc Uí Chaoimh sticks out like a sore thumb as one of the few times in the past decade where Cork stuck their head above the parapet. 

Ultimately, we have to accept now that this win was a mere aberration, and it was never to prove the giant stepping stone back to the top table that Cork football fans hoped it would be.

The previous Cork championship victory over the Kingdom was on June 10, 2012, when Cork won by 0-17 to 0-12. It has been a long decade.

A lot of observers would have assumed that the 2019 All-Ireland victories at minor and U20 level would see a resurgence at senior level follow within two or three years, but here we are three years later, and there is little sign of this.

And while underage successes often have to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt, there are valid reasons why a young Cork team has not emerged in the past 12 months or so to beat all before them.

To begin with there are obvious bridges to gap in the areas of fitness, strength and conditioning and even in terms of game management and coaching. Cork are behind the top counties in these areas and until they reach the requisite levels they will continue to be found wanting come the business end of the championship.

But the main reason for Cork’s stunted progress is due to the ridiculous number of injuries that Cork players continuously pick up.

Back in 2019 when the minors beat Galway in such dramatic fashion and the U20s made that thrilling comeback against Dublin in Portlaoise you would have identified key individuals from within these sides to step up to senior level and drive Cork on.

Cathail O’Mahony, Conor Corbett and Blake Murphy were probably the three attackers that stood out the most in my eyes as the type of players who could transform the Cork attack into one that could contend. Alas, O’Mahony’s progress has been blighted with recurring hamstring injuries and he has not really got a proper run at playing at senior level yet. 

Corbett suffered a terrible cruciate injury in last year’s Munster U20 Final against Tipperary and has not been seen since, while Murphy has only really made his presence known at senior level in the past few weeks.

In midfield, it is a similar story. 

Argideen Rangers' Jack Lawton was the key man at midfield in that minor triumph but has been pretty much injured ever since. Kanturk’s Daniel O’Connell is making in-roads now on the senior panel but he had a significant spell out as well. Brian Hartnett is the one player here who has developed away and would be expected to be a major part of the Cork engine room going forward.

The above are only some of the examples of key underage players who have suffered terrible injuries. There are plenty of others, such as Maurice Shanley. The Clonakilty full-back did a wonderful man-marking job on David Clifford in that 2020 triumph but has barely featured since. Diarmuid Phelan looked the pick of Cork’s defenders in last year’s Munster U20 win, but he picked up a nasty injury playing Sigerson for UCC last month.

Many a Cork manager could be forgiven for trotting out the line 'if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all'.

But is it luck? Every county gets injuries, but without doing a nationwide statistical deep-dive it does appear that the Cork footballers suffer far more than every other county. Why is this?

The senior side have similar issues. Both of Cork’s main men in defence are now marked absent, as Sean Meehan joined Sean Powter on the treatment table when he limped off in the second half of the defeat to Galway two weeks ago.

Serious question marks must be asked as to whether Cork are doing something wrong in the area of strength and conditioning. Are they trying to cram too much work in too quickly? Are they changing programs too much? Are they doing little work in the off-season and then going hell for leather in the New Year? 

There must be reasons, as fit, young players should not be breaking down with such regularity. Injuries are a fact of life in top-level sport, but an inter-county football panel should not have numbers dropping as frequently as they do on Leeside.