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Seán Powter: Cork taking pride in silencing the detractors
Winless, pointless, and relegation threatened after their opening three games, Cork finished their Division 2 spring a great deal smarter than they opened it
TACKLING THE CRITICS: The Cork footballers are slowly giving the middle finger to their doubters and critics, Seán Powter has said.
TUE, 26 MAR, 2024 - 12:50
EOGHAN CORMICAN
The Cork footballers are slowly giving the middle finger to their doubters and critics, Seán Powter has said.
Last summer aside, negative commentary has been a permanent hitch at the back of the Cork football bus in recent campaigns.
Indeed, when the forward step of last summer, and the All-Ireland series victories it included over Mayo, Roscommon, and Louth, as well as going the distance with Kerry, was followed by two steps back at the beginning of this year’s league, that negativity quickly resurfaced once more.
Winless, pointless, and relegation threatened after their opening three games, Cork finished their Division 2 spring a great deal smarter than they opened it.
The three-in-a-row wins over Fermanagh, Kildare, and Meath, followed by Saturday’s sharing of spoils with promoted Armagh, is the latest “middle finger” Cork response to those who continually doubt them.
“It is very hard,” replied Powter when asked how difficult it is to shut out the less than complimentary conversation that typically follows Cork football.
“Thankfully, I live up in Limerick at the moment, so I can drive away up the road and no one knows Cork football.
"But I know from being here when Cork got relegated before (2019), you are going out for coffee and there are people saying, ‘Jesus, what happened to ye at the weekend, Jesus, ye were bad’ kind of thing. That does niggle at you, that does kind of chip away at you.
“It depends how you spin it in your own head. You can go, ‘I am going to show them’, or you can go, ‘maybe they are right’. We as a group kind of wanted to give the middle finger to everyone who kinda doubted us, and thankfully we are doing that slowly.”
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Turning that point on its head, Powter was most articulate when outlining the not-so-sizeable Cork football fraternity who they strive to deliver positive results for each time they cross inside the whitewash.
“With Cork football, you only have your family and I'd say 300-plus core Cork supporters who will go to Fermanagh with you, who will go everywhere with you. They are the people you are doing it for, your family, your friends, and those pure Cork football (supporters).
“When we play Kerry, the Dublins, the Cork people will come out then. But when we were in Division 3, they were the people you wanted to do it for, who support you in the dark times.”
Far more important, though, than answering their critics and giving their band of followers reason to cheer is where this group of players want to bring Cork football.
With relegation to Division 3 and Tailteann Cup involvement staved off, the group’s lightened load turning the corner into championship will allow them to restart the job they commenced last summer.
“With us and Cork football, we put ourselves into positions we don't want to be in. We, as a group and under John Cleary, try to redeem Cork football.
“Last year, we felt we took one step forward. Then at the start of this season, we took two or three steps back. We just wanted to get back on track after the Fermanagh game and thankfully we did.
“Now we are going into championship with an eye on Limerick, and hopefully an eye on Kerry in Killarney, with a, I won't say a free shot but a go at them.”
They are going into championship with confidence raised. Mind you, the four-game unbeaten run that has put colour back in the cheeks of the Cork camp was more by necessity than design.
“We are building very nicely. We felt we put ourselves into a box at the start, with the first three games, and we had to come out fighting. Thankfully, we did this time around,” Powter continued.
“I also think we got a bit of luck above in Fermanagh. Maurice's last-minute goal, if that was a couple of years ago, Fermanagh would have went up then and scored and we would have lost four on the bounce.
“With confidence, you see players expressing themselves and you could see in the last 15 minutes there against Armagh that our fellas just went playing football, which is kind of not associated with Cork football.
“We are going with confidence into championship, but last year we got caught to Clare in Ennis, so we are going to be very cautious this time around again.”
