WHEN Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan addressed the crowd at the Carbery GAA Clubs’ Day in Dunmanway on May 11th, he insisted that the county board ‘won’t dodge the football challenge in Cork right now.’
The most powerful man in Cork GAA will get the chance to show there is substance to his words at the July county committee meeting at Páirc Uí Chaoimh next Tuesday, July 1st.
The county board has confirmed that the next meeting ‘will be dedicated to a discussion on all aspects of Cork football.’
It’s about time Cork football took centre stage, but next week’s meeting needs to be the throw-in to a much bigger discussion on how the Rebels’ football fortunes at all levels can be revived. This has to be the starting point.
Earlier this week, The Southern Star contacted the county board in an effort to shed more light on what a ‘discussion on all aspects of Cork football’ looks like? Surely, #2024 - A Five-Year Plan for Cork Football will be discussed? Even though this plan originated with the previous executive, given it was presented as the roadmap to better times for all levels of Cork football, its success and failures need to be examined in detail.
It’s quite staggering that an extensive review hasn’t already been held and findings published, since the plan ended in 2024. One full inter-county season has passed, and not a peep. It’s almost as if some hope this plan would just fade into oblivion …
On March 3rd last, we asked the county board if it has held a review into the five-year plan for Cork football, given the timeframe has elapsed. The response stated a review of all ‘such issues’ would take place ‘upon the exit of teams from their respective championships, as standard.’
The board added: ‘The Football Plan will be considered in this context also.’
With the Cork footballers’ season ending last weekend, all Cork men’s football teams have been knocked out of their championships, so the timing of the county committee meeting next Tuesday will, at last, offer the opportunity for delegates to question all aspects of the five-year plan and push for a proper review. Given the media is not allowed to attend these meetings, the onus next Tuesday night is on the club delegates to ask the hard questions needed to really ignite a conversation about Cork football.
Cork County Board CEO/secretary Kevin O'Donovan adressing the large attendance at the Carbery GAA Centenary Celebration in the Parkway Hotel, Dunmanway. (Photo: Paddy Feen)
The Southern Star’s efforts this week to learn if the board intends to review the five-year plan as part of the discussion – it seems a no-brainer, right? – were met with a very vague answer that didn’t say too much. A career in politics awaits the author of the response.
‘The planned discussion about football will take place next week within the parameters of a regular monthly meeting of Cork County Committee. All matters relating to football in the county will be considered. We look forward to an open, honest and constructive debate, and look forward to hearing the perspectives of delegates and members,’ the board replied.
There needs to be a shared desire by everyone, from clubs to the top table, to get Cork football moving in the right direction. As encouraging as the Rebels’ performance against Dublin was last weekend, the hard reality is Cork lost. The narrative cannot be dictated by the promise of better days because Cork football fans have endured more false dawns than most. The success of the hurlers cannot be allowed to push Cork football’s shortcomings to the side either. Because as welcome, though unexpected, as the All-Ireland minor and U20 successes of 2019 were, they are proving to be outliers. The facts don’t lie:
- Cork have won two Munster minor football titles since 2011.
- The county hasn’t won a Munster senior football championship since 2012.
- Cork are facing into a tenth season outside of Division 1 of the Allianz Football League in 2026.
- The Rebels’ regular success in the Munster U20 championship has dried up too, without a provincial title since 2021.
- Cork teams (senior, U20 and minor) have now gone over two years since last beating Kerry in a championship game.
- No Cork school has won a Munster colleges’ Corn Uí Mhuiri title since 2011. Of the 24 finalists since, only four have been Cork schools.
A previous version of these shortcomings, which have since worsened, formed some of the backdrop for the five-year plan for Cork football, launched in January 2019. The aim was noble: that ‘Cork will be regular contenders in all grades of inter-county football, including club championships, within three to five years.’ The plan didn’t deliver, and the reasons why need to be explored and reviewed to help shape what the future will look like.
What the plan for Cork football will look like is intriguing when Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan, at the Carbery GAA Clubs’ Day in Dunmanway in May, told the attendance: ‘The county board is not shying away from the football problem, the very opposite, but we do not intend to come out with a big announcement, a grand plan. That is not going to happen.’ He also added: ‘Hard work from U6 right up to senior, hard work will eventually solve the football problem, nothing else and we at the county board intend to see that there are plenty of volunteers available for that work.’
Hard work has its role to play here, but within the structure of a plan that can point Cork football in the right direction – this is why next Tuesday’s county committee meeting is important to start the conversation. Usually, these meetings can last between an hour and 90 minutes, but Cork football is a topic that deserves much, much more.
Take Brian Cuthbert’s thoughts on the creation of football hubs driven through schools in the various regions around the county. The former Cork boss, who was part of the five-year plan committee, told this paper in June 2024 that schools, clubs and county need to work together. He suggested: ‘What I would like to see happen is that particular schools would become hubs for clubs within particular regions so that you have absolute coordination within the region in terms of coach education, player development and competition.’ To make Cork football competitive on a regular basis needs creativity and innovation, and more than just one meeting. Let’s hope this is just the throw-in, and once the ball is in play the right people with ideas and enthusiasm can drive it forward. This ball can’t afford to be fumbled.
