“Blaming the corner-forwards last Sunday doesn’t cut it as far as I’m concerned.”
Kevin O’Donovan delivered an impassioned speech to the Cork County Board on Tuesday night and he finished to the sound of sustained applause.
The county’s coaching officer stood up in the wake of Sunday’s tame loss to Tipperary and demanded that change be made to rescue the future of Cork hurling.
O’Donovan wants centralised training in the county, uniform styles of play – a Cork style – and he wants the implementation of a director of hurling and football to oversee the likes of that.
“It’s something I have asked myself ever since we were well-beaten by Kilkenny in the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final, is Cork hurling in crisis?” O’Donovan said at the meeting, reported by the Examiner.
“I didn’t think it at the time, but, walking through the square in Thurles on Sunday, seeing the supporters with their tails between their legs, I realised that yes, it is. There was no anger, nobody giving out about the referee or anything, I only heard apathy, people saying that they’d need never support Cork hurling again, that it’s finished.”
There’s a danger though that we might call every lull in the GAA a crisis now.
Donegal football was in crisis only half a decade ago until Jim McGuinness came in and dragged them to the promised land from absolutely nowhere.
Tyrone football was in crisis, Mickey Harte should’ve left, and now we’re talking about the latest team he has built being the ones that can overthrow the champions.
Jesus, the champions. Dublin. Their footballers were in crisis when they had won just one Leinster in 10 years. Now, they’re unbeatable. Now, it’s not fair. Now, the county should be split in two.
Meanwhile, Kerry – 37-time All-Ireland champions Kerry – are in crisis. After two All-Ireland finals in a row. Crisis.
Calling these things a crisis is a crisis.
“I can understand the frustration and anger among supporters,” O’Donovan said. “They want to attack players, management, tactics – I know people look for quick solutions.
“There was a film out earlier this year [Hail, Caesar!] and it had a great line: ‘Would that it were so simple.’ A long road has brought us to this point. The base of elite players is not at the level it was 10 years ago, the strength in depth has eroded dramatically.”
It happens. Good teams come and go.
What happened on Sunday when Cork lost 0-22 to 0-13 to Tipperary was disappointing, sure. But it was only a classic case of a worse side coming up against a better side. They came up against a team more organised, more hungry, and a team further down the road in their development.
It’s no reason to accept it either but it takes time and work to get back from the doldrums. Kevin O’Donovan, however, wants drastic work to start now and he wants it to start with a director of hurling.
“I see a role for a director of hurling and a director of football,” he said.
“I see a massive deficit in terms of linking teams. Can you look at the different Cork teams at senior, intermediate, U21 and minor levels and say that there is a style of play? Certainly not.
“A director of hurling could facilitate that, not undermine a management team but support it. Whatever tactic is employed, let it be integrated. I’d have major concerns about strength and conditioning too, it needs to be centralised, with fewer appointment but of a higher quality.”
Derry, for example, appointed Brian McIver as their director of football last year. It would be unfair to judge his impact only seven months later by the poor result of the senior team against Tyrone but it certainly shows that these things take time. Good teams take time.
You have to ask the question as well of whether or not four different teams at four different age groups deploying the same tactics is healthy. Is that the best way to bring through your best players?
Of course, you’d have a familiarity with a style of play and men coming through ready to step up to the senior team more seamlessly but what ever happened to the notion that you should fit the system to suit your team – not fit your team to suit the system?
Every player is different, every team has different ingredients, and philosophies should change accordingly to get the best out of each individual that you have. Each team that you have.
“We have to ask ourselves about the image of our board. Are the public happy with the image we’re projecting? We’ll take flak as much as anyone, we all have the best interests of Cork at heart.
“We have to see where the breakdown is happening, the good underage players that are being lost along the line. We have to be more critical of the development-squad system, of which I’m a part myself.
“We have to get back out and support city clubs more at grassroots level and in schools. In the rural areas, we have to look at structures or else the number of clubs will diminish, if there has to be amalgamation then so be it.
“I accept it’s easy to present a shopping list, especially when Páirc Uí Chaoimh is under development, but if we can isolate the things we need to do, we can prioritise and find solutions.”
At least Kevin O’Donovan is doing something about it.
But Cork will continue bringing through their players and maybe they can do that more purposefully, more cleverly. It doesn’t mean that a few years of apathy needs to be declared a crisis. Good teams take time to develop and everyone from fans to board members need to appreciate that.
You’re not going to challenge for the Liam McCarthy every year. That’s the sad reality of it but it’s the truth.
Perhaps the people of Cork deserve credit for refusing to accept that truth.
