Cork footballers cut loose after Maurice Shanley popped up from defence to hit the net

WHEN Clonakilty’s Maurice Shanley scored that goal to grab victory from the jaws of defeat up in Fermanagh the collective weight on the shoulders of the Cork footballers seemed to lift almost visibly.

Immediately the confidence levels soared and John Cleary’s side have looked like a completely different team since, as they reeled three wins off in a row, while finishing their campaign with a creditable draw against promoted Armagh, in an entertaining game at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday.

SPIKE

A key illustration in the improvement in Cork’s play has been the massive spike in the scores from play that they have been registering in their last three games when compared to their first four outings.

In the opening defeats to Donegal, Louth and Cavan, Cork managed to score 2-5, 0-10 and 0-11 from play in these games, respectively.

Against Fermanagh, it wasn’t looking much better, and in fact they registered their worst 'from play' total of the campaign even with the benefit of Shanley popping up with that late winner, as they only scored 1-6 from play that day, but the stats since have been eyebrow-raising.

Cork scored 2-15 when beating Kildare in Round 5, with the eye-catching part of that scoreline being the fact that every single one of Cork’s scores that day came from play, and in the next round up in Navan, Cork registered 1-15, with only a single point of that total coming from a placed ball.

The campaign was completed with Saturday’s draw, which saw Cork score an impressive 2-16, with 2-12 of that total landed from open play.

These are huge and extremely impressive tallies and would suggest that the Cork attack is really starting to fire now, just as the Munster Championship looms.

Chris Óg Jones has been arguably Cork’s most consistent attacker in this campaign with him getting on the scoresheet in every game, and fronting up even when the side were struggling up in Ballybofey and Ardee. He scored 2-15 from play across the seven games and he is an integral part of the Cork forward line now.

In terms of trying to identify what the catalyst was that has transformed the Cork attack in the past month, it is easy to point to the contribution and presence of Conor Corbett.

The Clyda Rovers man did not play in the first three games, which all ended in defeat, so he can boast an undefeated league campaign if he wanted to wind up his teammates!

He scored a beauty of a point against Fermanagh from a sideline, before bagging 1-2 against Kildare and 1-3 versus Meath in the next two victories. He only got the one point against Armagh, but it is not only on the scoreboard that he is beginning to show his influence, as he is now looking like the perfect fulcrum to build the Cork attack around, to hold the ball up and to bring others into the play.

A lot was expected of him on the back of his exploits at minor in 2019, and after injury stalled his progress, that potential now looks like it is being realised. With Óg Jones, Brian Hurley, Steven Sherlock, Sean Powter, Mark Cronin and Brian O’Driscoll all looking in good nick it bodes well for the year ahead from a Cork perspective.

RIVALS

Over in the hurling Cork manager Pat Ryan would have been busy keeping a keen eye on the progress of provincial rivals Limerick, Clare and Tipperary in the league semi-finals at the weekend.

Limerick looked extremely flat in their 1-15 to 3-17 defeat at the hands of Kilkenny down in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening, but no one will start writing obituaries for John Kiely’s side just yet. A very different version of the five-in-a-row chasing side will be expected to rock up in Ennis in the opening round of the Munster Championship on April 21, and they remain the benchmark for everyone else to reach.

Tipperary will not be in action on that opening weekend of the Munster campaign so it was surprising to see them take so long to get out of the traps up in Portlaoise, with them being seven points down before they strained the umpires back to lift a white flag.

These semi-finals are likely to have been long forgotten once Munster gets into full swing, so anything seen last weekend will be taken with a pinch of salt.