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 6 September 2004 Irish Independent | |||
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THE CORK CAMP . . .
HISTORY is something Diarmuid O'Sullivan broached briefly at school - and it's not a subject he feels has any place on hurling's curriculum.
He may come from the most esteemed Cork hurling village of them all - Cloyne, the birthplace of Christy Ring - but for O'Sullivan, the Rebels' redoubtable full-back, three in a rows and places on the rolls of honour aren't carrying much significance for him this week.
"I haven't honestly given it a thought and I don't think too many players do when they're preparing for a match. You're too busy getting yourself right and focusing on your opponents," he says of Sunday‘s second successive All-Ireland hurling final.
"How many titles a county has or what sequence they are aiming for is irrelevant to a player who is just looking at the next game. The only statistic concerning us in Cork right now is that we have a chance to do what we didn't do last year - beat Kilkenny in an All-Ireland hurling final."
For most neutral observers the most striking memory from that final was provided by O'Sullivan whose rhino-like second-half charge out of defence with ball in hand and half the Kilkenny attack hanging out of him.
But for O'Sullivan the memory is of a game they had prised from their grasp in a gripping final 10 minutes, just when they looked like they would win it.
"It's been said often since that we left that final behind us but I never looked at it that way. You have to credit Kilkenny for the way they came back at us. I suppose losing that game has been the spur for us all season. Even when we lost the Munster final to Waterford there was still the Kilkenny defeat in the back of our minds driving us on."
Cork had everything in their favour in the second half of that epic Munster final - the breeze, numerical advantage after John Mullane's sending off and a four-point lead, yet they still conspired to lose.
"It wasn't easy to get over but the fact that we had been to an All-Ireland final the year before helped us to get over it. Getting back to an All-Ireland and winning it was always the season's aim and the response was incredible," he recalled.
"You could see heads were down in the days after the Waterford game. I never went outside the door on the Sunday night. But I'd say on the Wednesday night the mood changed and we haven't looked back since."
O'Sullivan is one of those strong characters on which this Cork side is built. The fitness problems and illness he encountered last season are well behind him now and a leaner, stronger 'Rock' has emerged, more reminiscent of the young man who burst onto the inter-county scene in the late 1990s.
An All-Ireland colleges medal winner with Middleton CBS in '95 he quickly established himself as a defender with a fearsome reputation, winning three Munster and two All-Ireland under-21 titles between 1996 and '98 and cementing himself on the Cork seniors at the same time.
By '99 he had overtaken Brian Lohan as the premier full-back and when a young Rebel side claimed an All-Ireland that year they thought it would become a way of life.
"I suppose we all fell into that trap. Many teams do but we were caught badly. We went up to Dublin for an All-Ireland semi-final against Offaly the following year and we were complacent. We hadn't the work done and they caught us."
By 2001 they were limping badly and by the end of 2002 Cork hurling was in chaos with the embittered division between players and county board officials.
Ironically, O'Sullivan found himself across the trench lines from his father Gerry, then a county board officer.
But with a new working relationship established the last two seasons have been left to concentrate on restoring the glory days and making up for lost time.
O'Sullivan is 27 now and eyeing up a second All-Ireland medal. Their recovery from the Munster final has been good but the defining game against Tipperary is some two months ago now.
In the meantime Cork have had little more than target practice against Antrim and Wexford who were a big disappointment in last month's All-Ireland final.
"That game wasn't much use to us. We expected a much stiffer test from Wexford. Kilkenny have had far more competitive games against Clare and Waterford. But it could work either way."
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