Cork footballers need the backing of a large, vocal Cork crowd on Sunday against Meath

Before Cork played Donegal in the 2024 round robin in Páirc Uí Rinn, Donegal hadn’t conceded a goal in that championship – and then Cork hit them for three goals.

As well as not conceding goals, Donegal rarely shipped goals off turnovers, but Cork’s three goals all came from that source. 

Cork wired into their opponents but Donegal were so uncharacteristically sloppy with possession that they turned over the ball almost as often in that match than they had in the entire Ulster championship.

Donegal spent most of the afternoon chasing the game but as soon as they’d done what appeared to be most of the hard work by reeling in a five-point deficit, almost everybody in the crowd felt that the game was up for Cork once Aaron Doherty levelled the match late in the fourth quarter.

Donegal had all the momentum but Cork refocussed and pressed on. 

Ruari Deane set up Steven Sherlock for a point before Cork’s scramble defence denied Donegal two scoring chances and Daniel O’Mahony set up Colm O’Callaghan for the insurance score.

It was a day of days for Cork football, especially after being hammered by Donegal in their opening league game earlier in the year. Nobody saw it coming but once Cork got a sniff of victory, the home crowd in the attendance of 7,251 roared the players home in an electric atmosphere.

“The fans make a massive difference,” said Colm O’Callaghan afterwards. 

“People probably don’t realise it, but coming down the stretch there in the last 15 minutes when we got a run on Donegal, the crowd, they backed us all the way. 

"You could hear the chants. It does give us a massive boost. It was unbelievable and it made a massive difference.” 

The stage and setting was different but the home crowd made a huge difference too when Cork beat Cavan in their opening round league game back in January.

“I would hope that the Cork public now would get behind us because, look, this could come down to small, small margins,” said John Cleary after last Sunday’s match against Offaly. 

“The day against Cavan, when the crowd came in, coming down the home straight, you know, it definitely was a help. We won by a point.” 

The crowd that afternoon were buttressed by the supporters that came in for the Cork-Waterford hurling match, but Cleary made his appeal in advance of Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash against Meath in Páirc Uí Rinn for a reason – because Cork need a big crowd now for such a pivotal match in their quest for promotion.

“Matches in Páirc Uí Rinn, I think if there's a crowd there, there'll be a very good atmosphere,” said Cleary. 

“I'm sure Meath have a very good travelling crowd as well, so we can't be overdone by that, hopefully.” 

Meath will travel in large numbers but there’s a wider element to Cleary’s call-to-arms too than just this match – because Sunday is a rare chance for the footballers to cash in on the profile that this game affords them.

It's the footballers first home league game in Páirc Uí Rinn in seven years. 

With the hurlers not playing again until March 1st, a clash of this magnitude is an opportunity for the footballers to win over some of the lukewarm supporters that might be attracted to an intriguing game against an old rival on their doorstep – especially for the city crowd. 

And if they can, the trick then for the footballers is to hold on to that support.

That hasn’t always worked in the past. When Cork beat Roscommon by one point in Páirc Uí Chaoimh to secure their ticket to the 2023 All-Ireland quarter-final, PUC was buzzing.

“It was a fantastic occasion,” said Cleary afterwards. 

“It was the first time in years that the crowd got really behind the Cork football team. We were thrilled to hear them coming down the home stretch. Hopefully, they’ll keep on the bandwagon with Cork football. Hopefully this is just the start of a journey.” 

It wasn’t, which is no surprise when it comes to generating more support for the footballers. A week later, a tiny Cork crowd travelled to Croke Park for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Derry.

Still, that Roscommon game was another example of the players responding positively to a boisterous home crowd. 

Earlier in that 2023 campaign, a sizeable Cork contingent in the 14,081 attendance at Páirc Uí Chaoimh really made their voices heard in Cork’s narrow round robin defeat to Kerry.

When Cork took Kerry to the wire in extra-time of last year’s Munster semi-final, the fervour and electricity ignited the atmosphere in PUC, but it also seemed to inspire the Cork players.

On the otherhand, how much of a factor is the size of the crowd either in a big stadium like PUC? 

There were just 1,300 less in the Park that there was in April when Cork and Kerry clashed six weeks later in the round robin, but Kerry were far more convincing winners that afternoon.

The size of the crowd in Páirc Ui Rinn for the Donegal game in 2024 was just over half of what it was in PUC for last year’s Munster semi-final. 

Yet a big crowd in Páirc Uí Rinn doesn’t need the same volume of supporters as a small crowd in PUC to pack the place out and turn it into a cauldron.

That’s what Cork hope they can create now on Sunday. 

The players will still need to match that intensity on the pitch, but another win and another positive performance could mobilise a lot of floating Cork supporters into getting behind the team.

And for a side steadily building momentum, that could make a huge difference for the rest of the season.