Cork draw attention for the right reasons

After a lengthy and bitter dispute, the footballers start their campaign on a winning note, writes Sean Moran

ST BRIGID'S ground in Kiltoom is a neat, well-appointed venue where Roscommon have taken to playing their NFL home matches. The small, secluded area yesterday joined the roll call of such locations that find themselves unwittingly the centrepiece of a media feast.

The reason was the arrival of Cork footballers for a Division Two league match. This wouldn't normally be a cause for lights, camera, action, and on the face of it yesterday should have been no different given the visitors' traditional struggle to hit double figures with their travelling support and the home support turning out in smaller numbers than for the previous match with Meath - only 2,000 bothering to turn out to watch this game.

But after months of acrimony, withdrawal of players' co-operation, talks, collapses and more talks, Cork were back in business at senior intercounty competitive level.

At the end of a lively 70 minutes, the visitors had marked their return to action with a valuable two points, having chalked up a heartening two-point win, to set against the matches they had already forfeited when failing to play Meath and Dublin.

New manager Conor Counihan was realistic afterwards and lost no time settling into the cautious vernacular of the post-match quote. "It was a good start but I would not be getting carried away with it. The lads showed plenty of spirit, but at the end of the day it is just one game.

"It is just one game and we have Westmeath in two weeks time, and there is nothing between the teams in this division and we are just hopeful that we can come out the right side of it again the next day," he said.

He hadn't been too surprised at the response from the players despite their having come together only a fortnight ago.

"That's down to the lads themselves. In the short time I have been involved, they have shown a lot of spirit, a lot of determination and a lot of pride. I am not going to take credit for that because that is coming from themselves. Winning today was a bonus. They worked hard and grafted and they got what they deserved," said the Cork manager.

Roscommon manager John Maughan was correspondingly frustrated at his side's inability to exploit further the opposition's lack of preparation.

"Cork looked rusty and certainly stale. They didn't have the benefit of a couple of matches played and that told in their performance, and yet they go away with the two points.

"We came back at them in the second half and had it down to two. After the goal we got it back to within a goal, but we didn't create that goal chance."

He hadn't really known what to expect from the visitors.

"No, I hadn't a clue and I'm not sure they knew themselves."

Asked if he was concerned at his team's lack of creativity and their reliance on frees for second-half points, Maughan replied with a touch of asperity.

"They conceded a lot of fouls so maybe that led to a lack of creativity."

The result leaves Roscommon with one point out of three matches and he was invited to fulminate again on the subject of the points awarded to Meath and Dublin, given that the fight against relegation may well go to tight margins. He re-iterated a recurrent irritation with another of the Central Competitions Control Committee's decisions.

"That decision was fundamentally flawed, as I've said before. The games should have been played. It was unprecedented the decision the CCCC arrived at, and what rubbed salt into open wounds was this €400 fine. The Roscommon management were fined €400 for a Division Three hurling game in Omagh where the two selectors during the game stood beside the manager. There were about 20 paying supporters at that game, and some guy in the stand, who'd probably got in for nothing, decided to fine the Roscommon County Board €400. How does that equate with the non-fulfilling of a fixture?

"The association makes a bloody joke of itself with decisions like that."

New Cork captain Graham Canty was less fired up when reacting to his team's satisfactory start to the season.

"There's a lot of hunger there after a slow start to things. There's a lot to do and we want to put it right and we'll be working at that over the next couple of weeks. It's very early yet and all we're doing is focusing on keeping the head down."

I'd say they are.