Mark Coleman has 2018 regrets but knows Limerick era was inevitable
Mark Coleman is a 10-season Cork campaigner. Aged 27, 10 summers on the road suggests an early start. A very early start, in fact.
Coleman was just 18 and a year out of minor when Kieran Kingston called him down from the stand and introduced him for Stephen McDonnell late on in Cork's 2016 qualifier defeat to Wexford.
19-year-old Coleman was at left half-back for Cork's next championship outing, that being their 2017 Munster opener at the same Thurles venue. Seven weeks later, he returned to Semple Stadium and pocketed a first Munster medal on his third championship start. The carefree teenager cut over a 63rd minute sideline. Two minutes later, he glided forward and doubled his tally.
Cork went back-to-back in the province in '17 and '18. Both campaigns ran aground at the All-Ireland semi-final stage. The 2018 semi-final stings more. Seven minutes remaining, Cork led Limerick 1-26 to 1-20. It was a lead they could not keep grip of and there was born a green monster.
Coleman's take on the redrawn hurling landscape following the 2018 semi-final is that a Cork win would not have prevented the subsequent Limerick takeover, it would have merely delayed the Treaty's coming by 12 months.
'We knew enough about them from underage, they beat us in 2015 minor (Munster semi-final), 2016 U21 (Munster quarter-final), and 2017 (Munster U21 final). We knew that team fairly well, we knew they were coming,' said Coleman.
'You look back with regrets on that [2018] game, the fact that we were six up into the 62nd minute, but in terms of what would have happened after, they were always going to go on. Maybe we might have delayed them another year, but it's more just regrets about that game. They were always going to go and win All-Irelands.'
The Cork-Limerick clash of three weeks ago had none of the drama or suspense of the 2018 instalment. All it had was total Limerick domination. Cork were less participants, more spectators.
It was actually a turnover on Coleman in front of the open stand that led to Diarmaid Byrnes' point to shove Limerick 16 points clear for the first time on 34 minutes. The previous 33 minutes had been similarly unkind to the men in red.
'When the team gets a run on you like that – especially above, there was a massive wind in that first half, that first half felt like a full game in itself – they were keeping the tempo high, they kept the puckout going, they had us under pressure.
'Over the years, you learn how to deal with that, how to slow games down, and how to reset. There probably were a few times where we did maybe get a couple of scores and they just obviously had that bit between their teeth.
'We've been in a lot of tricky situations down through the years and as a team you have to know how to communicate, reset, and maybe pull a puckout from somewhere or just slow things down to get out of those difficult moments. It's probably something we didn't do well that day, but with that you just learn from it.'
Prior to chatting with Coleman in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh media room, we sat down with his boss. Unprompted, Pat Ryan singled out Coleman as the one starter that awful day above in Limerick that battled.
A timely compliment given Coleman's No.7 shirt had been in danger for so much of the campaign to date of becoming Cormac O'Brien's No.7 shirt. Because of injury, the Blarney clubman featured in just two of Cork's six League round-robin outings. Within that, he started just one. He did not start the League final and would not have started their championship opener but for injury to O'Brien.
'I've definitely benefited, personally,' Coleman said of the ongoing half-back battle.
'I was out of the team for the league final, and unluckily for Cormac, he picked up an injury before the Clare game, he probably would have been starting as well.
'Something Pat always says, the next man up, and it's just about trying to take the opportunity. There's probably five fellas for every line on the pitch, minimum – even more. You saw we had three or four fellas injured for the Waterford game, and we had three or four started, another new three or four came on. That strength in depth is important.'
Eight of the team that began the Waterford game are without a Munster medal. If Coleman took slightly for granted the pair he pocketed at the beginning of his career, there's nobody who'd overlook the worth of provincial silverware this weekend.
'From the championship as a whole, we've a lot of learnings, in terms of playing with a man up, playing with a man down, we've played against gale-force breezes, we've got hammered, we've been winning well, we've had it all really.
'We've a lot of learnings to take, so just looking forward now and trying to put a performance in the next day.'
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