Christy O’Connor on Cork’s U20 loss and why key young players will thrive at senior

WITH 11 minutes remaining in the Cork-Clare Munster U20 semi-final in Ennis in mid-May, Mikey Finn roared out to Diarmuid Healy, shaking his fist in a gesture to Healy and the rest of his team-mates to keep driving towards the line.

Cork were apparently in control of the match. They were nearly there. It looked like they were as good as in the final when Barry Walsh got the next point to push Cork six in front. And then suddenly, it looked like Cork were on the road to somewhere this group had never been before.

Clare got a goal from the puck-out before Oisin Whelan then reduced the margin to two. Then the Clare crowd were stirred into a craze when Diarmuid Stritch scored his second goal. When Clare landed the next point, which came from a turnover from a blocked Cork shot, Cork looked out of ideas and almost out of time.

And then, almost as if they needed to be taken to the brink to show they could find a way back from the precipice, Cork emphatically found a way.

The reaction at the final whistle encapsulated what the victory meant. The win came sandwiched in between two of Cork’s biggest hurling victories in recent years, the seniors wins against Limerick and Tipperary. And yet, that U20 victory in Ennis was just as satisfying in another form; Cork were expected to win but when it appeared that they wouldn’t, they did. They found a way.

Last Friday night though, Cork finally came unstuck, losing the Munster U20 final in heart-breaking circumstances to Tipperary. The pain was all the more acute again given that Cork got a clear-cut goal that wasn’t awarded.

Cork were devastated in defeat and, yet, this side couldn’t have done much more than they actually did. They just weren’t accurate or clinical enough when it mattered most.

When Tipp got their goal in the 40th minute to go five points ahead, Cork’s response was absolutely devastating. 

Over the remaining 24 minutes, Cork got off a staggering 21 shots, but they only converted eight. Tipp only managed seven shots in the same timespan but they nailed five. 

And it was just enough to win by one. Just.

Cork absolutely dominated the Tipp puck-out in the last 20-plus minutes, especially on the second ball when Tipp repeatedly went short. That, along with their dominance on their own restarts, was the source of most of Cork’s shots in that period. Yet Tipp won their critical last puck-out before Darragh McCarthy scored an incredible point that ultimately proved to be the winning score.

The goal that never was will haunt these players for a long time but Cork will also know that it should never have come down to that play. Cork had 12 more shots than Tipp over the 60-plus minutes. Yet Cork’s conversion rate was just 48% compared to Tipp’s 64%.

Cork will be frustrated too with the concession of the goal, while two of Tipp’s late points came from frees that Cork will feel could have been avoided.

When Cork further analyse this game, they’ll also wonder about their decision to set up with Cillian Tobin as a sweeper which, in turn allowed Tipp to deploy Ben Currivan in the same role, who acted as a constant roadblock when William Buckley and the rest of the Cork line-breakers came charging down the middle.

Whatever happens for the rest of this summer with the seniors, when the supporters look back on May at the end of the year, they’ll recognise just how pleasing those 13 days were in the middle of the month.

HEART

The U20s may only be an afterthought but their win against Clare and the fight and heart shown against Tipp was another reminder of how Cork hurling is turning a corner, of how Cork are doing what their supporters demand and expect of them, of how their players are emptying themselves until that very last second.

The seniors showed that resilience against Clare and Limerick while the next generation coming after them have consistently shown that at U20 level. 

Most of the current Cork U20s know full well what it’s like to go to the wire, having also been in a real scrap in last year’s Munster final against Clare. 

Cork looked in serious trouble late on in that match before powering on in the dying minutes to win by two.

They won’t think or feel that way now but when the current Cork squad look back on last Friday night, and on this campaign, they’ll appreciate even more just how hard it is to win when the bar is raised, when teams are coming for them.

The 10-point whipping they suffered from Tipp earlier in the round-robin was also Cork’s first championship defeat in ten outings under Ben O’Connor. The manner of the loss also shattered some of the aura around this team, especially given their background of success, particularly their dominance at minor in 2021, and how this group were just expected to continue revelling in that success.

Yet they manfully responded to that adversity by winning in Ennis and almost winning against Tipp in Limerick. This team couldn’t have done any more last Friday. They just weren’t clinical enough.

The most enduring and impressive image of last Friday night was of Darragh O’Sullivan hugging the referee Niall Malone at the final whistle. When was the last time that happened? The respect O’Sullivan showed was all the more impressive again given the heartbreak O’Sullivan had experienced as captain.

Cork may have lost but the grace the players showed underlined how so many of them will be key to Cork going forward. Sometimes the class and mark of a team is about much more than the final score.