(JJ Hurley)
Cork fan's mass exodus from the ‘Pairc’ on Saturday evening as the footballers took to the field emphasises the reality the supporters are no longer in love with the game.
It’s a distant memory from All-Ireland success in 2010, and the three consecutive league titles of 2010, 2011 and 2012 or the semi-final appearance of 2012.
There is an argument that the game that emerged since those days, with its blanket defence and minimum score tallies, has seen Cork fans turn their backs on a game, whose county produced some of the association’s greatest dual players.
There may be some truth in that as last year’s qualifier against Clare in Ennis, witnessed 30 players in the Cork half of the field, a scene that would have found a comfortable home on a basketball court.
Now all that might be true, but surely the new rules should have offered an opportunity for the game to wipe the slate clean, with fans giving the game a fair crack at the whip.
Maybe the Rebels have lost that famous optimism as there has been too many false dawns, 2020, having dispatched Kerry, with a late goal, they failed at the next hurdle to Tipperary.
A decent run in 2023 reaching an All-Ireland ¼ final losing out to a Derry side that reached an All-Ireland, everyone dreamed of success in 2024, only to see the magic of a victory over Donegal on lee-side evaporate to Louth at the home of Kavanagh and its stone-grey soil.
The Perennial also ran in the promotion race from division two, angry fingers are beginning to point at the man, who was once heralded as the Messiah, John Cleary.
These are the same fingers that also pointed at Brian Cutbert, Peadar Healy and Ronan McCarthy, when their tenure ran out of road.
They say a bad tradesman always blames his tools, but Cork’s lack of success at underage level continues to bedevil the largest county in the country, with the last underage team to climb the steps of the Hogan Stand in 2019, and it was a runner’s up spot in 2010.
If the production line is limited you can’t blame the salesman, and Cork’s production is limited, particularly at senior club level.
Nemo may well lead the national figures, but their last title came in 2003, the Haven may well consider themselves unlucky last year, and we have had success at the lower grades, but it’s not the same.
Our school’s record is just as miserable in the Corn Uí Mhuirí, the last victory came in 2011, with the nursery at Turner’s Cross the last team to lift the famous old cup.
The great promise that Rebel Óg never materialised and warnings were flagged in the pages of the Southern Star in May 2011, with the contributor suggesting the new structure would become little more than a monster, a Frankenstein.
It certainly hasn’t trickled down to Cork’s football development squads, witnessed by last year’s poor performance by the minor and U20 grades.
It’s no wonder the fans turned their backs on the county side on Saturday night, not helped by the much lauded five-year development plan launched to much fanfare in 2019 that’s obviously now failed.
Of course, variety is the spice of life and at our senior football county table competition that’s not the case, three teams, including Nemo, Haven and the Barrs, are the only ones with any serious chance of lifting the Andy Scannell in 2025.
While supporters and clubs may well claim it’s the executive and the board that are responsible for creating a malaise round the game of football in Cork.
However, supporters and clubs would do well to remember when you point a finger, there is always three pointing back at you
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