Seán Óg Ó hAilpín on preparing for All-Ireland final day and that Croker pressure

One more day until Cork either end a 20-year wait for Liam MacCarthy – or fall short, again, at the final hurdle.

It’s taken months of preparation, years of harsh lessons, and a number of standout performances for Cork to get back here. For most of this group, the stage is familiar. And that familiarity, that experience of being here before, could make all the difference.

At least that’s the view of the last man to captain Cork to All-Ireland glory.

From Seán Óg Ó hAilpín’s experience, having one All-Ireland final under your belt changes everything.

“My first one in 1999, I was only a young pup like, 22 years of age,” Seán Óg begins. “I had to go through that experience, and to be honest, I was very green and naive, as you naturally would be.

“I just went along with the flow, really. Jimmy Barry-Murphy would have said not to get caught into pitfalls coming up to the games.

“On matchday then, there’s a good chance you might come across someone you'd know, but you're just there to play the game. You’re not there to talk to uncle Tim or auntie Mary, you’re just there to do a job. We had those guidelines at least,” he says. “But more or less, it was new to me. I tried to soak it in as much as possible.

“It seemed to work for us, since we beat Kilkenny unexpectedly that year. But All-Ireland final day after that, it was a whole different ball game for me.

“You knew what was ahead of you, so in a way, you think that that would help a player. I just found it worse. 

The more finals I got in, sometimes there you can be too fixated on the game. It’s always great to have release mechanisms. 

“In my early years, I used to take a couple of days off work leading up to the All-Ireland, just to try and get away from it. 

"Towards the end, I ended up working up to Friday at 5 in the evening, because it took my mind away from the game,” he adds. “I found when you're on your own for a while, inevitably, you're just thinking too much about it. So I just did things to take my mind away from the game, and it helped me enormously.” 

A question Seán Óg has received plenty of times in the years since is what do you miss most about it?

“The winning is great and all that,” he explains. “But it's these moments the build-up to the game, where you have butterflies in your stomach.

“It's those moments that I miss now. Those moments ask the question of you. 

Are you going to do it or not? I always found that it helped me.

“When the pressure was on a small bit to deliver, to perform, to play, to win, I revelled most in those situations rather than a situation where you're not expected to win and you just fall into the final by default.

“I found myself more times than not in those scenarios, you come home losing because it doesn't give you the same edge as having to deliver under pressure. If you do deliver, then the growth in your development [is huge].

“You know that there were questions asked of us, and we were able to get through it and deliver and hold our own. I see that in the context of the backdrop of this final. Cork are there two years in a row, we haven’t won an All-Ireland in 20 years. The last four finals Cork have played in, we’ve lost.” 

QUESTIONS 

“Especially for this group of players, they fell short. Agonisingly. The question is going to be put to them, when the pressure comes on, will ye be able to deliver?

“I hope it's the same with the panel that take to the field on Sunday, that question of being asked to deliver – under pressure where it counts most – that our fellas will respond to that in spades.

“They grew together after the Munster final victory and I think the manner in which [they won], they were floored a couple of times but the fact they were able to get off the canvas and eke out a draw.” 

Cork have had to deal with pressure at every stage of this season. And they’ve thrived under it.

“You talk about pressure, what about penalties? At the end of the day, they passed it with flying colours. Limerick shrunk in penalties. I think Cork will be asked the same questions that Limerick asked of them in the final. I think we’ll get the same answers as the Munster final.”