Tony Considine: Leadership is completely lacking in this Cork team, it's cost them in so many big games

I was asked by the sports editor to do a column to analyse Cork's All-Ireland semi-final loss but where do I begin? 

The first thing I will say is Cork have brought a lot to hurling over the last few years. They've been involved in some classic matches, some they won and some they lost. Above all, they have brought fanatical supporters who have followed this team big time and brought great colour to every stadium.

The same supporters are feeling very down right now. Or maybe I should say very let down, not just this week but since last year's All-Ireland final when there was a no-show in the second half on the biggest stage of all.

The big question now is where do Cork go from here? 

We have heard all about the wonderful training they were doing, maybe we heard too much about that. 

We heard about the top sports psychologist [Gerry Hussey] they use to get their minds right for the big matches. We hear great things when the team is successful, their names are all over the place, but we never hear a word when the team collapses. Cork had a different man in that role last July [Gary Keegan] but their last two visits to Croke Park were total blow-outs, so the heads definitely weren't right.

I think it's a much bigger problem than that. 

Ben O'Connor has taken over from Pat Ryan. Both good sound GAA men, but Ben has inherited the same problems. 

If anything, he has bigger problems. It's mostly the same personnel, bar a few new players. 

Hard questions

He must be asking himself a lot of questions about that right now, but he also has to look at himself and his management team. 

You'd wonder about the tactics Cork used, especially in the first half when they had the Galway full-back line in all kinds of trouble. They kept playing the sliotar around too much in their own back line, tippy-tappy hurling to one another instead of letting the ball into Brian Hayes and company, who were on fire. 

When Daithí Burke was in trouble and only standing on one leg, the other heavily bandaged, why did they not give instructions to get ball into that area as fast as possible, where real damage could have been done? And if they did instruct them to do that, why was it not carried out?

Cork were in a good position at half-time, playing well, but they should have been a lot more up, allowing Galway to come back into the game late in the first half. They led by one point but were five ahead after 29 minutes. 

The same as last year's All-Ireland final, Cork started very poorly in the second half, conceding score after score. Galway's confidence was soaring as Cork were falling apart, and Galway ruthlessly exposed that, getting on top all over the field. Where was the Cork response? 

Questions were asked of all Cork's big players, but no one answered that call. 

Nobody was getting upset over it, or getting angry over it. Confidence was draining from the players, demons coming back to torment them, memories of that fade-out against Tipperary came flooding back. 

All in the mind

For a team as athletic as Cork, their legs were not able to go but that has nothing to do with fitness, it's all in the mind. That is where big men stand up and leadership comes to the top. But that leadership is completely lacking in this Cork team. 

They have very good players, but it takes a lot more to be a good leader. When you are going up hill, you have to show your teeth more, and unfortunately, this Cork team do not do that in big games, especially in Croke Park. 

The reality is players have got to look at themselves and say to themselves why do we let this happen. 

You can have all the tactics you want but sometimes it's what's in the belly, which is not seen, that matters most. 

That is where Cork players have to look at their inner selves and find that ruthless streak that really keeps you going when the going gets really tough. Sometimes you need to hear that said, and do something about it. 

For a county the size of Cork, the biggest in the country, to be going nearly 22 years without an All-Ireland senior title is a big let down for them and nearly more so for their huge following.

Galway had leaders all over the field, none more so than the man on one leg, Daithí Burke. Cork need to show that kind of leadership in the future, or get players who have that quality.