Alan Connolly on the goal trail for Cork: I'm just trying to do my job

BACK in March, Blackrock National Hurling Club celebrated its 140th anniversary.

Among the special attractions at the clubhouse on the night was a film produced by Conor Hurley, featuring contributions from a number of the club’s star players over a timeframe of almost 70 years.

The youngest player featured was Alan Connolly, who left no doubt that he was aware of the green and gold heritage he was charged with carrying on. That’s something he has done, playing a key role in the 2020 Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC victory, the Rockies’ first in 18 years.

Quite a few of his attacking predecessors in the club have also shone in the red and white of Cork. Peter ‘Hakwer’ O’Grady made 15 appearances for the Rebels between 1928 and 1931, enough to claim three All-Ireland medals. Ray Cummins won four Celtic Crosses and nine Munster medals, not to mention five national leagues.

Another Alan – Browne – was unfortunate to have shone in the mid-1990s, when Cork were at a low ebb, but he did come off the bench in the 1999 All-Ireland final and enjoyed a fine swansong as captain in 2003, when the Rebels narrowly lost to Kilkenny in Croke Park.

Connolly has carried on the lineage with gusto. Given that he missed all of 2023, it’s easy to forget that, after the impact of his debut season in 2021, he scored 4-4 in the five games Cork played in 2022.

That tally has already been exceeded in 2024, Connolly’s 3-1 against Tipperary last Sunday leaving him on 4-9 from four games, carrying on from the 6-4 he registered in two starts and a substitute appearance in the Allianz Hurling League.

The Tipp hat-trick was his third of the year, having raised three green flags against both Offaly and Wexford. Given what has gone before him, he is proud to maintain a proud history.

“I heard stories in Blackrock about Ray Cummins and Alan Browne,” he said, “people I would look up to. I like being direct, not too fancy anyway.”

And yet. Despite Connolly’s heroics at FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday, there is the possibility that it will have been Cork’s last championship game of the year.

The attacker, like the rest of us, must wait to see what materialises in the Limerick-Waterford and Tipperary-Clare games but, if Cork do progress, he believes they are ready to keep improving.

“It is kind of a weird situation we are in because we must wait for next week to see if we are out or in,” he said.

“Obviously, I am delighted with the win but we could be out of the championship as well. We won’t get our heads too high.

BELIEF

“We have loads of belief in this team, it was a really good team performance. What did we score – 4-30? I think we’re top scorers in the Munster championship at the moment.

“We were unlucky against Clare. Last week [Limerick] was very important. It was a really big win. We will remember that for the rest of our careers.

Tipp in Thurles, tradition – unbelievable.”

While Pat Ryan’s side won by 18 points in the end, they trailed by a goal inside a minute after Jake Morris netted for Tipp. The setback didn’t affect them, though.

“After the goal, we settled down,” Connolly said, “and only conceded 12 points [in the first half], which is really good these days in hurling.

“We scored 1-15 and we were happy at half-time, the goal before half-time definitely gave us a bit of a boost.”

Connolly was the man who put that away and added two more in the second half, forcing a turnover for his and Cork’s second and then linking brilliantly with Luke Meade for the third. Patrick Horgan added a fourth and was unfortunate to see another disallowed.

“Points difference was in the back of our minds,” he said. “We really put the foot down. It is something we are trying to put into our game anyway, to put our foot down.

We let Clare back into it three or four weeks ago.”

And to score a third hat-trick?

“That’s why Pat brought me back,” Connolly said, “just trying to do my job.”