Rebels’ attack just didn’t fire, says O’connor
DONNCHA O’CONNOR has insisted that Cork’s defeat to Donegal in last August’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final was down to individual errors rather than a systematic failure.
The perception t hat t he Cork footballers, who have been the most consistent team in the country in both League and Championship over the last three years, cannot cope when faced with opponents who set-up deep-lying, massed defences was given further substance in last August’s two-point defeat to the Ulster champions.
The loss was immediately filed in the same folder as the 2009 All-Ireland final defeat to Kerry, in which the Rebels were unable to break down their rivals, who dropped back bodies to protect a half-time lead.
And while they finally overcame Dublin in the following summer’s semi-final on the way to a first Championship in 20 years, they had looked ed set for defeat heading into the final quarter of that game as they hey struggled to deal with Pat Gilroy’s remodelled team, m, until the Dubs tired in the e final quarter, coughing up p crucial scorable frees.
That perceived tactical l weakness may have e pr o mpted the county ty board’s demand that Cork ork manager Conor Counihan han (right) have a clear- out of his management team last autumn autumn, as Brian Cuthbert, Ronan McCarthy and Haulie O’Neill replaced Jim Nolan, Terry O’Neill and Gerry O’Sullivan.
But O’Connor believes that last August’s defeat was not a reflection of the management, but was down to the Cork player’s ‘ panicking’ during the second half of what was hailed by critics as the game of the year, after a breathless first half which saw Donegal lead by a point at the interval.
However, Donegal manager Jim McGuinness, who had departed from his normal big-match formation in the opening half by playing with an orthodox three-man full-forward line, saw his team revert to type in the second period, which saw their intensity levels and tackle counts rise.
‘At the start of the second half Donegal came at us but a lot of it was down to our giving the ball away to them and they were catching us on the counter attack and getting scores,’ said O’Connor. ‘They were up two or three points at the start of the second half and it felt like they were up a lot more. I think we panicked to be honest.
‘Definitely Donegal had a game-plan and it worked but I felt we had a game-plan too and it’s not so much that the it didn’t work, more that it was our mistakes that made it look like our game-plan wasn’t working,’ added the Cork forward, who admitted that there were lessons the Rebels needed to take from Donegal.
‘Every fella knows what the next fella’s going to do. They have a system and whether they’re up or down, they stick to it. I think it’s just as simple as that, they stick to it and when push comes to shove they don’t panic or go away from it. I think that’s what got them through games last year that they all stuck to the game-plan. ‘I I felt that we did stick to our game-plan but 10/15 minutes into the second half, we might have gone away from it a little bit. ‘And if you go away from it th then it probably will cost you and were probably to blame, taking on shots that usually you wouldn’t take on. ‘ ‘We panicked when we were getting into the scoring position. In the first half we were giving it to the fella in the right position position. I In the second half we just panicked,’ conceded O’Connor.
While Cork are seeking to become the first county since Kerry (1971-74), to win four National League titles in a row, O’Connor claims that survival in a tough campaign that will see them on the road against Dublin, Down, Cork and Kerry will be the priority.
‘It might sound a bit weird to say after winning three in a row but our first priority in all those years was to stay in Division 1 and it definitely hasn’t changed this year because this is probably the hardest League that’s been there.
‘There’s no easy games so you can’t afford to get off to a bad start because if you get into a relegation fight, it’s probably the hardest thing to get out of. Conor always drills it into us, whether it’s a challenge game or not, we want to win every game so I don’t think anything is going to change.’