BY JOHNNY CAROLAN
CORK are underdogs against champions Limerick in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final. That’s hardly surprising – the Shannonsiders have won the last four All-Irelands, five in six years in total, while you have to back to Cork’s 2018 Munster title for the last time any other county held provincial supremacy.
There is some hope for the Rebels though in the fact that they have already beaten Limerick this year, coming out on top by 3-28 to 3-26 in an epic tie in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in May.
While Cork led for much of that match, it looked like Limerick had done their usual thing as they pushed two in front in the closing stages. Shane Kingston’s run drew a foul, Cork were awarded a penalty which Patrick Horgan converted and Brian Hayes made sure of the win.
One of the stars that night was Darragh Fitzgibbon, who scored five points from midfield, and the scenes at the end were unlike anything he had witnessed in his inter-county career.
‘No, I haven't really experienced anything like that,’ he says. ‘We probably experienced more success with the Munster wins in 2017 and ’18 but I think that was just, I suppose, a feeling of relief to kind of extend our season for another week, and also to highlight that the things we've been working on in training are working and to give us confidence to drive on.
‘But again, everyone talks about those scenes after the match. I think that was just the crowd expressing an emotional response to what we did on the night. We knew as players, when we got back into the dressing room, yeah, we said, “Well done,” to each other, but we knew we had to get in and get ready for the following week.
‘We were back in the gym the following morning getting ready for Tipperary because we knew results had to go our way first of all and then we knew we had to beat Tipperary to try to extend our season, which we managed to do.’
After opening their campaign with defeats against Waterford and Clare, that match was one Cork simply had to win.
It served to provide a template and it has been followed by three more – the county’s first four-game winning run in the championship since 2006.
‘I think the circumstances demanded it that day,’ Fitzgibbon says, ‘but it's something that we've taken into the rest of the year in terms of our performances.
‘There was a lot of pressure going into that Limerick game. You could either let it eat you up or you could put the shoulders out, drive through and give it your best. That's what we did.
‘I suppose you take a lot of learnings from each performance and they're some of the things we took from that one that we've been trying to build on throughout the last few weeks.’
In Cork’s six games, Fitzgibbon has had four different starting partners at midfield – Tommy O’Connell, Ethan Twomey, Luke Meade and Ciarán Joyce – but it doesn’t hugely affected his game.
‘Not necessarily,’ he says. ‘You tailor what you're doing to the opposition that you're playing and the game plan that the team has. I've probably played with a different player in nearly every game this year. Just the competition is so good and the quality of player is so good that guys have come in and slipped in seamlessly.’
One player who, like Fitzgibbon, has remained ever-present is goalkeeper Patrick Collins, albeit not without some external noises. The Limerick game represented a turning-point for the Ballinhassig man and Fitzgibbon is full of praise for the custodian.
‘He's been absolutely outstanding,’ he says. ‘To be honest, he's been absolutely outstanding since he's come into the role. As a playing group, we have ultimate faith in him. You could even see from his performances against Offaly and Dublin, he was coming under pressure from a shot-stopping point of view and he answered every single one, like our defence did.
‘It's testament to the work that he's put in and the work the players have put in. We've worked on puck-outs, for and against, since the Clare game and he has executed them unbelievably. There's no doubt that he's one of the top keepers in the country.’
Collins, Fitzgibbon and the rest of the team will need to perform just as well again if Cork are to end the Limerick drive for five. As a native and resident of Charleville, Fitzgibbon won’t need any reminding of what a defeat would look like.
‘I think definitely you experience it much more,’ he says. ‘I suppose it's a good rivalry but there's good banter in it too. I think if you arrive down in Charleville, you'll see as much Limerick flags as you will Cork flags. We probably haven't given the Cork people as much opportunity to raise those flags as the Limerick people have in the last couple of seasons.
‘But yeah, you definitely experience it. I'll be keeping the head down and keeping well out of their way.’
