How Cork recovered from ‘complete shock to the system’

Thu, 13 Sep, 2018 - 07:30

Eoghan Cormican

Kingspan Breffni Park, September 2, 2017. The Cork dressing room is a picture of devastation. There’s total silence, nobody quite sure what to say or do. A Cork ladies football team hasn’t found itself in this position in seven years.

Ephie Fitzgerald togged 30 players for last year’s 3-11 to 0-18 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo, but outside of full-back Bríd Stack, captain Ciara O’Sullivan, and subs Annie Walsh, Aisling Barrett, and Róisín O’Sullivan, none of the panel had ever experienced defeat in a knockout senior championship fixture. All they knew were September outings to Croker and homecomings on South Mall.

Diminutive corner-forward Orla Finn was no exception. Called into the Cork squad by Éamonn Ryan after completing her Leaving Cert in June of 2011, she had played in six All-Ireland finals and pocketed six All-Ireland medals prior to last September.

That a largely new Cork team has moved the county within one hour of a 12th All-Ireland crown in 14 years has a lot to do with what happened on the September afternoon last year when the seven-in-a-row dream died.

“It was a huge blow, a complete shock to the system,” admits Finn.

“We didn’t know what to do. There was complete silence in the dressing room. Everyone was crying. We didn’t know how to take it. I hadn’t been there in 2010 when Cork lost to Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final, but I was told it was the exact same feeling. When you are after winning so many All-Irelands, it is just so hard to take.”

Contrary to the consensus view, Finn saw the Mayo defeat as a blip rather than the end of a glorious era. To think any differently would have been to stray from a mindset which has seen Cork dominate the game since 2005.

“You can’t look at it any other way [than it was a blip] because if you do, it might become the norm that you keep losing.

We’ve learned so much from that defeat. We have used that defeat to drive us on this year. All year we have been giving our all at training, the same in matches. Thankfully, we are in a final, but we don’t want a repeat of that feeling, above in Croker, that we had last year.

Sunday’s decider may be the fourth time in five seasons that Cork and Dublin are clashing on the concluding day of action, but there’s not much point in harking back to those previous meetings. This, as noted already, is a new Cork side. From the team which scored a 2-11 to 0-11 victory over Donegal in last month’s semi-final, only seven players — Martina O’Brien, Róisín Phelan, Shauna Kelly, Ciara O’Sullivan, Áine O’Sullivan, Doireann O’Sullivan, and Finn — began the 2016 final triumph over Dublin.

In the wake of Bríd Stack, Vera Foley, Deirdre O’Reilly, Rena Buckley, Briege Corkery, and Annie Walsh departing the squad, Finn felt no extra weight pressing down on her shoulders. Following Valerie Mulcahy’s retirement after the 2015 season, Finn effortlessly assumed the free-taking duties from a woman who top-scored in eight out of her 10 All-Ireland final appearances — the Kinsale native finished the 2016 championship with 3-24 (0-22 frees) to her name. And so in the same way she had stepped into Mulcahy’s boots, Finn was confident her teammates would fill the void left by some of the game’s most successful exponents.

“Back in 2011, I came into a panel that had won five All-Irelands in a row. I wasn’t starting for the first number of years, but I learned from the work-rate and drive the older and more experienced players showed. I studied the movement of Valerie and Nollaig [Cleary]. I watched Valerie take free upon free upon free. We bought into wanting to win. We were really afraid of losing.

“The younger girls who have come in over the past two years are coming into a squad where you have players with eight All-Irelands. They are feeding off that. The county has been going really well at underage the last couple of years and those girls have really stepped up since they have come in.”

Finn, who has contributed 1-28 this championship, added: “You do have to live up to what came before you. That makes you want it even more. I’ve been there over the last couple of years when we won. I know what the feeling is like. It’d really be a dream come true to win another one after losing last year and this being a new team, a different team.”

It was somewhat dispiriting to read Julia White, in advance of the camogie final, say a lot of the students at Christ King Secondary school, where she teaches, wouldn’t know that she plays for Cork. That’s certainly not the case in St Joseph’s National School in Cobh, where Ms Finn looks after the senior infants.

Our principal is very good, he has organised a 50-seater bus to go up on Sunday to the All-Ireland final. There is a red day on Friday. The excitement, the buzz is great, it covers up a bit of the nerves.