INSIDE TRACK: Defensively more solid, expect Cork footballers to focus on their attacking play in 2024

THE secret to making progress is getting started, and all football followers in Cork hope that the progress made this season will be the beginning of a renaissance for the Rebels at inter-county senior level. 

A lot has been done but more to do for manager John Cleary, coach Kevin Walsh and their team but they probably can’t wait for next season to begin. So what and where are the men in charge going to be looking at in order to take the next steps?

We need to win a Munster senior football championship; Cork’s last was in 2021. We need to get back to Division 1 of the national league; 2016 was the last season Cork were there. We need to be spoken about as contenders for the All-Ireland again. But all these progressions won’t happen overnight. In one season look at the ground that Cork have made up compared to where they were last season. 

You cannot compete at this level unless you are supremely fit. Adam Doyle, Cork's strength and conditioning coach, can take huge credit for turning Cork from a 50-minute team to a 75-minute team in that short space of time. Last season Cork footballers were out on their feet against Kerry and Dublin after 50 minutes of their championship clashes, but you only must look at the way Cork finished against Mayo and Roscommon this season to understand the difference. As the layers get laid on this fitness base over the next few years, we will hope to see further gains.

Of the starting 15 against Derry in the recent All-Ireland SFC quarter-final, the average age was 26. The six backs had an average age of 24, the middle eight was 28 and the six forwards came in at 27. Those numbers tell me that the majority of these players are either in their prime or have yet to reach it. A few players are flirting around the 30-mark but they still have a lot to give and a huge part to play in the learnings of the younger players over the next three or four years. 

Cleary and his backroom team will be scouting the Cork championships hard in an effort to unearth another half dozen players to aid the cause. Brian Hurley didn’t start against Derry due to injury and looked like he may have done further damage as he wasn’t on the field long when he could be seen to be hobbling. The club season to come will tell us a lot about the Castlehaven sharpshooter’s fitness levels. Cathail O’Mahony is a very obvious one and the talk was that if Cork had made a semi-final that he would have come into the picture. Sean Meehan is a young man who has been plagued with serious injury and will hopefully have a clean bill of health for next season. But all those guys were on the panel anyway.

The question is are there a few more out there that can have the impact that Ruairi Deane and Brian O’Driscoll did this season? Names like Kevin Flahive, Luke Connolly and the White brothers, Mark and Sean, would come to mind. Are there new guys in the U23 bracket that can make their mark? Names like Darragh Cashman, Hugh O’Connor, Damien Gore and Ryan O’Donovan may fit the bill here, if they light it up at club level first of course. But the way Cork played this year the most valuable type of player for the Rebels is a transition player who can contribute on the scoreboard. Spaces for finishers who will be allowed to sit up top all day are very limited the way the game has gone. This type of player can defend, then have the energy to get up the pitch at pace and then have the composure to finish.

Could Kilmacabea forward Damien Gore add an extra edge to Cork football team?

The football bashers were back to full flow following Cork's departure from the championship, having been lurking in the shadows waiting for their opportunity. The so-called demise of the game due to defensive tactics got a full airing. Any coach worth his salt will break down the job in front of him into manageable chunks and tackle them one at a time. Fitness levels, defensive organistaion and making the group competitive have obviously been prioritised by Kevin Walsh and John Cleary. One would expect a greater emphasis on more cohesive, attacking play next season to compliment that. Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan says as much on this week’s Star Sport Podcast.

‘The next phase for the footballers is having settled things at the back … will be our attack and getting more expansive in our attacking play,’ he said. ‘All the counties who have gone defensive have gone through that, they have all had to settle at the back first and then get more progressive as time goes on. The next phase for us is to increase the scoring rate right throughout the team, to be more expansive as we go.’

The change in pace from the Cork v Derry last-eight clash to the first half of the Mayo v Dublin quarter-final was startling to say the least. That first half was top-notch, enthralling action. Mayo and Dublin were getting 12/13 bodies behind the ball, no different to Cork and Derry but the difference was the speed of transition from defence to attack and the conversion rate. 

Cork transitioned by putting the ball through the hands. The top teams kick it. The ball moves faster than any man and that’s why the likes of Ryan O’Donoghue, Colm Basquel and Cormac Costelloe found themselves in space one-on-one time and again to take on their man and convert.  Too often this season Cork were happy to methodically keep the ball without an end product but I have no doubt that this one is top of the agenda for next season.