Comment: Seán O'Donoghue and Alan Connolly silence their doubters

Irish Examiner

6 days ago

Muted and maligned. Magic and bloody-mindedness. Distant relations on the field, points proven in perfect tandem.
Bar the colour of their shirt and county of their birth, common ground should not exist between Seán O'Donoghue and Alan Connolly. One is paid a wage for producing and pilfering green flags, the other preventing them. Different job descriptions, different people. O'Donoghue is a father, Connolly a TikToker.
Croke Park common ground this July and last. Connolly's form and frequency of finding the net disappeared when the 2024 championship reached the biggest house in the estate.
O'Donoghue endured a similarly challenging championship finish. The captaincy passed from him during the subsequent off-season. The off-season conversation wondered if the No.4 shirt might pass from him too.
Injury on the opening day of the league closed the door on the 29-year-old. Injury to Ger Millerick five weeks later saw it reopened. Doubts, though, remained unshook.
'Their defence has been playing well but Cork still have questions to answer. Seán O'Donoghue is obviously a great character, having been captain last year, but he has had some tough championship days,' Anthony Daly wrote on these pages the weekend of the League decider.
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'Can Seán prove now that he has put those days behind him and be as consistent as he needs to be if Cork are to win an All-Ireland?' The questioned man and the forgotten man.
During the minutes Connolly missed between Rounds 2 and 7 because of an Achilles problem, his forward colleagues raised 11 green flags. No cause to lament their missing green flag prince. Brian Hayes and backing vocals were making sweet music in his absence.
The questioned man and the forgotten man no more.
Such was O'Donoghue's authority on the April afternoon of the League final win, the scoreless and single assist-Darragh McCarthy was whipped on 46 minutes. The corner-back's distant relation up the field bagged a first goal in red since the completion of his championship hat-trick against the same blue and gold opposition on May 19 of last year.
Back up the clogged motorway. Would they, whoever they are, just lift the Watergrasshill and Portlaoise tolls when Cork are renting out the big house.
Another red July in Croker. The questioned man, still, and forgotten man once again.
Connolly's scoring form had once more tailed off. Just 0-3 across the three games before Saturday. Subbed off in all three too. A starting corner-forward fifth in Cork's from-play scorers chart. A starting role losing certainty.
Cork's Alan Connolly celebrates scoring his side's seventh goal of the game. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne.
The muted Rockies kid roared again. From nine possessions, he magicked up 3-2 and assisted 1-1. From nine possessions, seven scores. A second goal straight out of SW19 centre-court. A fourth hat-trick in 16 months. A tally of 24 goals, across League and Championship, in 40 appearances. And remember that for almost one-third of those, he began on the bench.
'Alan had a bit of a heel issue at the start of the year and was playing through that a small bit. But we could see a different Alan over the last while, he was hungry. In the Munster final, his workrate was top-class, his tackling from behind, his hunger,' began Pat Ryan when asked about the re-emerged Connolly.
'Today, he probably didn't work as hard tackling from behind because he was winning more ball, and that's where I'd be critical of him a small bit at times.
'But look, he was really sharp in training over the last three to four weeks and we expected a huge performance off him today. He needed a huge performance because Shane Kingston, Conor Lehane, Jack O'Connor, Robbie O'Flynn, and all these fellas are playing really well in training, and you need to be performing.
'It wouldn't be right, if you're not performing, to leave fellas on the line.'
They both earned their payslips and praise. Connolly produced and played his part in five green flags, O'Donoghue prevented four. The corner-back blocked John Hetherton within two minutes of the throw-in and flicked away the attempted strike of Cian O'Sullivan.
Into the second period, he hooked Ronan Hayes 47 seconds after the restart and later intercepted a Fergal Whitely handpass to Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing There's more. Much more. The aforementioned block on Hetherton ended with a converted Declan Dalton free. On 16 minutes, his out-in-front winning of possession ahead of O'Sullivan ended in another Dalton minor.
On 41 minutes, his fetching of Whitely's delivery set in motion a sequence of delicious passes for Tim O'Mahony's opening goal. On 64 minutes, he was twice out in front of Donal Burke to turn over possession. Another 1-1 followed. 2-3 from his defensive wins.
Whatever doubts remain must surely be of the faint variety.
'I think, sometimes, fellas get a name into their head and they try and give them flak, and then everybody jumps up on top of it. It's happened down in Cork with different players through the years but we've no question about Seán. We see it every night in every training. He's probably our best trainer,' said Ryan.
'He had a lot going on last year with captaincy, having a new baby, building a house. All those things can take a bit of distraction away from yourself, but he's been brilliant for us, a great leader within the group.
'I'm delighted with Sean's performances, but he needs to play a bit better now again the next time.'
The once-identified weak link in the full-back line is now their most uncooperative combatant. Connolly's murderous intent has had a timely rediscovery. Muted and maligned no longer.
One last outing of magic and bloody-mindedness sought. One last collective point to prove.