Cork Hurling has spent the summer praying that they've hit rock bottom. The idea of hitting rock bottom is quite an optimistic one, and one which has seemingly yet to be fulfilled, as they squad manage to follow one miserable underachievement with another.
Fans hoping that last weekend's defeat to Wexford finally represented the lowest potential ebb will be dismayed by today's comments by Sean Og Ó hAilpín, who believes things will get worse before they get better for Cork, as he told The Irish Sun:
Next year it will be 12 years since Cork’s last All-Ireland win. You have to go back to 1954-1966 for the last time Cork went that long without an All-Ireland. But look, you would be very foolish to say Cork are going to win the Liam MacCarthy in the next two or three years. It would be foolish of anybody to say that right now. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and I hope the powers that be look at the bigger picture.
For too long fellas have looked at the photographs of All-Ireland-winning teams hanging in boardrooms where meetings are held, thinking ‘Sure it’s OK, we’ve won before and we’ll come again. The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
Things are going to have to change in Cork if we are to get back on track again. I just hope that this might bring some finality to what’s happening and Cork can now start building for the future.
In a damning fact for Cork hurling, their minor, u-21 and senior hurlers were all knocked out of their respective championships before the Munster final took place. The seniors' defeat county's first Championship defeat to Wexford in sixty years. The 1956 All-Ireland final was the last time Wexford had beaten Cork in the Championship, a game in which Nicky Rackard scored 1-5.
Following the exit of the hurlers, Alan Cadogan and Aidan Walsh have linked up with the county footballers, ahead of their Round 3 qualifier away to Longford on Saturday.
[The Irish Sun]
