Analysis: Cork footballers earned their vital victory over Down

IF ever a team needed the badly needed oxygen that only a win can provide then that side was the Cork footballers, with them getting it with a hard-fought 1-16 to 1-12 victory over Down on Sunday afternoon.

It was no surprise whatsoever that this was a relegation four-pointer given it was a meeting between the league’s leakiest defence and the weakest attack. And that is not just in Division 2 either, that is across all four divisions. 

Cork had conceded 100 points in their five opening rounds, while Down could only muster up a grand total of 51 in theirs.

And while the Ulster men did manage to surpass their average per game total they were not able to score enough to escape Páirc Uí Chaoimh with a victory.

Word is that the Down panel had been making noises in their Cork hotel on Saturday night that they were extremely confident of taking the Cork scalp. This was an understandable position given Cork’s recent form, but without the heavier hitters from the Kilcoo club Down just did not have enough firepower, even if Liam Kerr and Pat Havern did cause the Cork defence a lot of problems.

The Cork fans had to endure the frustrating sight of watching Kieran Histon limping off after only a few minutes on the clock, as the Cork defensive injury curse continued. His replacement, young Tommy Walsh from Kanturk, Aidan's younger brother, became the 34th different player Keith Ricken and his selectors have utilised to date in Cork’s stuttering campaign.

CURSED

One might even think that it is specifically the six shirt that is cursed, as Histon joined previous wearers Sean Powter (against Clare) and Sean Meehan (against Galway) as centre-backs to hobble off in this campaign. Nemo Rangers’ Histon may not have been playing centre back when he got injured, but he was wearing that number. Castlehaven’s Rory Maguire was the man anchoring the Cork defence here, making him the sixth different player to fill the role so far, with not one player operating there twice: from John Cooper, Powter, Billy Hennessy, Meehan and Histon to Maguire.

The lack of consistency in selection is echoed in other key positions too, with this game marking the first time this season that the same midfield pairing got a second day in a row: Ian Maguire and Colm O’Callaghan.

It is common sense that a losing side is going to chop and change more often than one winning every week, but nonetheless, it is incredibly difficult to build any continuity if there is no consistency in terms of selection. With that in mind, it is worth noting that Maguire and O’Callaghan were extremely influential in securing Cork’s first win of the campaign.

FIREPOWER

Cork started with a three-prong attack of Steven Sherlock, Cathail O’Mahony and Brian Hurley up top, and while captained Hurley was quiet on the day the other two caught fire, with Sherlock slotting 1-7 and O’Mahony slicing over three points from play, which shows how important it is to have multiple shooting options on the pitch.

When Cork led by 1-8 to 0-6 after 37 minutes it was looking like it might be a comfortable day at the office for Cork, but a Tiernan Rushe goal in the 47th minute put paid to that, as the Ulster men got back to within a point.

It was majorly important that this Cork side showed some character and they certainly demonstrated some steel after the concession of that goal, with good scores from Sherlock and Daniel Dineen, and Sherlock again from a wonderfully struck free, cancelling out the green flag with three white ones down the other end.

Down went a full 13 minutes without scoring after Rushe’s goal, but when they scored three in a row themselves between the 60th and the 65th minutes to make it a one-point game again Cork managed a couple of crucial scores from Nemo’s Mark Cronin and Mallow’s Mattie Taylor to steady the ship.

When Down registered a score in the 69th minute to make it a two-point game the fans would have been fearing the worst, with the dreaded two point lead in GAA, but two quick-fire points from O’Callaghan and Sherlock gave Cork some badly needed breathing space.