No need to hound Alan Connolly for showing some belief

How often has it been said in the recent – and may not-so-recent – past that GAA players “say nothing nowadays”?

There are no characters anymore, the narrative goes, because the modern practitioners of our games are cosseted away, training five nights a week, and any smidgeon of personality is being coached out of them.

And yet, whenever a player does utter something of interest, fans of that team will have their heads in their hands, imploring them to keep quiet lest any hostages to fortune be given, while supporters of the opposition will jump on it with glee.

Earlier in the week, Cork hurler Alan Connolly was up for interview at a Bord Gáis Energy event in Croke Park.

The Blackrock attacker was asked if there was any difference in the group now compared to last July and the 15-point loss to Tipperary in the All-Ireland final.

“Ben [O’Connor] has come in and they're trying to bring in their own way, without changing too much either," Connolly said.

“We're learning every game, every session. And every year we've kind of grown. We kind of just focus on ourselves. We're not trying to worry about anyone else. When we're at our best, I don't think anyone can beat us.”

Now, fans of the English language will notice that there is a qualifier there – Connolly is specifying the situations when it all comes together for Cork. We have seen games like that and we have seen the ones where things haven’t flowed and the poor results that accrued.

However, put the line through a headline-grabbing filter, multiplied with the pressure for online outlets to garner clicks nowadays, and the impression is that Connolly is setting Cork up for a fall.

TWISTED

It’s similar to when, after the league win away to Kilkenny, he was interviewed on TG4 and said that Cork want to win every competition they enter – not earth-shattering news, one might think, but of course it can be twisted to mean that he’s saying they will do so.

Any performance coach would presumably be delighted with Connolly’s belief in himself and his colleagues and Ben O’Connor backed him too at the press event ahead of Sunday’s re-match with Tipp.

“He [Connolly] was being cocky, that's what people said,” O’Connor said.

“If you ask any player in the country or walk into any dressing room, what are they going to say? That they're only training for the fun of it? If you're only training for the fun of it, you shouldn't be in the dressing room. I'm delighted Alan said that. I'm delighted he said what he thought.

“I like that in fellas. I don't like fellas just going along with the company line, saying 'We'll see how we get on'. We're going up to Thurles to win. We're not going up just to play in a game, we're going up to win. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. 

Why not say it out straight that we're going up to win? That's what we're playing the game for.

“We're not telling any lies to anyone. That's what we want to do. If the plan goes properly for us, that's what we are going to do. And that's not putting any pressure on my lads.

CLEARCUT

“If we play better than them, we'll win. If they play better than us, they'll win. It's as black and white as that.”

Such simplicity gets lost in all of the noise nowadays and one can imagine that Connolly will face noise as he stands over dead balls on Sunday. Taking over from the retired Patrick Horgan during the league, he had a couple of iffy moments in the early games but, across the last four matches he played, he scored 26 out of 27.

In total, he had a strike-rate of 30 from 36 or 83 percent. Some of them were easy, but that means Cork were being fouled in dangerous positions.

It’s the kind of return that gives confidence, for Connolly himself, and for management and team-mates in him taking on a heavy mantle.

There will be plenty willing for him to miss those strikes on Sunday but you sense he won’t be bothered by that.