Today's Irish Independent previews Cork/Tipp in wonderful fashion: Vincent Hogan sits down (over Skype?) with Aisake Ó hAilpín to recall Cork's shellacking of Tipp in the 2010 Munster Championship. What emerges, however, is the difficulty of viewing things in isolation, and talk soon meanders onto the unholy end to that championship season: defeat in the Munster final left a scar, which was followed by a lacerating the 3-22 to 0-19 defeat to Kilkenny in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Cork were 13 points down at half-time, and Aisake was hauled off at half-time. It proved to be Aisake's final game for Cork, and he revealed his disgust at the atmosphere on the team bus afterward, which he saw as a betrayal of the elder generation of players, including his brother and John Gardiner. Recalling the incongruously jovial atmosphere on the bus from Croke Park to Hogan, Aisake bristles at the attitude on show:
I'm sitting there, thinking 'fucking hell, we just got embarrassed out there...' It nearly drove me crazy looking at them.
I didn't say anything, but in my head was 'fuck this, I'm never going to let this happen again. Getting taken off. Losing by that much. No, never again'.
I couldn't get that bus journey out of my head either. These lads laughing and joking. All, 'where are we going tonight?' Even drinking on the bus.
Like, how can you have a drink on the bus after getting pumped like that? I didn't like that at all. And I could see that Seán Óg and Donal Óg didn't like it either. Oh fuck it, I could see it in Donal Óg's face!
They'd won All-Irelands, Gardiner the same. These young fellas had won nothing and now you're looking at the way they're acting after a massive loss. It would take the experienced lads weeks to get over it.
These lads were over it once they got on the bus and had their first beer.
Aisake returned to Melbourne, and bar the close shave in 2013, Cork have drifted just as far from spending September in Croker.
It's a wonderful interview which we recommend you read. It's not been posted on the Indo's website yet, so best to get the paper.
