Cork football talking points: Rebels showed real character and tactical awareness

Cork’s character 

IT’S long become a fashion in Cork to criticise the footballers. Down the years they’ve shipped all sorts of abuse, but the few supporters in the unofficial attendance of 4,000 had reason to walk on air at the final whistle.

When Louth got their noses in front for the first time in almost 35 minutes, you could almost read their minds, ‘here we go again’, but to their great credit, the players rose to the challenge in the grand manner with a courageous effort in a hectic closing spell.

There was a determination not to suffer again, like they had in Ennis and in Ardee, and Cork came up with the right answers to every question.

There were many incidents to highlight Cork’s spirit, like captain Brian Hurley’s free close to the left touchline to level matters and then the bravery shown by substitute John O’Rourke to gather up a breaking ball around the middle, risking injury amid all the giants populated there.

Of course, there were many, many others, notably the endless running and support play of Ruairi Deane and Ian Maguire, but this was a team effort with the bench also playing a major role.

Pressure off 

TO an extent the meeting with All-Ireland champions Kerry at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday is a free shot for Cork, who are in pole position of be one of the three teams emerging from Group 1 to contest the knock-out series.

The heat, literally, is on Mickey Harte’s Louth, who somehow must contrive a way of first beating league champions Mayo on their own patch and/or overthrow the Kingdom at a neutral venue to make up for this defeat.

In the unlikely event of either of those games taking an unexpected direction, then this victory should ensure Cork’s qualification for the preliminary quarter-final, bonus territory.

Tactical triumph 

APART from the obvious satisfaction and indeed relief of getting over the line, Cork can afford themselves a clap on the back for taking on Louth at their own game and winning.

As anticipated, Louth reverted to type after the Leinster final drubbing by Dublin, immediately withdrawing every outfield player behind the ball once Cork got possession of the leather.

And Cork’s attitude was ‘anything you can, we can do even better,’ so, they too plugged the gaps in their own portion of the pitch, especially in a very cagey first half which still yielded 16 scores, including some special points from the magnificent Sam Mulroy, who played a true captain’s role.

Cork’s counter-attacking 

THIS was a ploy used superbly by Cork, who the very minute they sensed an opportunity to run at Louth was on, went through the gears into overdrive with an end result of critical points, like Brian Hurley’s effort in the 30th minute after a searing run by Deane.

It was also evident in that hectic finale, when substitutes Steven Sherlock, Conor Corbett and O’Rourke kept the scoreboard ticking along.