FOUR YEARS ON from contesting a Division 1 final against Dublin, Cork have slumped to the third tier of the league.
Twelve months on from being within inches of climbing to the top flight, Tipperary have joined Cork in sinking.
In the 70th minute of their clash yesterday Clare were set for relegation but they dragged themselves away from the precipice with a late blast of 1-2.
It was an afternoon of fine margins in the Division 2 football league fare and a chance for reflection when the final whistles blew in the Athletic Grounds and Semple Stadium.
The upshot is that Clare, the only team capable beforehand of shaping their own destiny, survived while neither Cork or Tipperary received the favour they needed in the chain of results to launch a last day great escape.
Division 2 always looked set to be ferociously competitive this year. Four draws in the opening two rounds sparked plenty congestion and ultimately half of the 24 victories in the programme of fixtures were secured by margins of three points or less. But with newly-promoted Fermanagh and Armagh both settling well, it quickly became apparent that high-profile victims were on the cards for the relegation shake-up.
It fell to Cork and Tipperary to fill those roles. On the back of double-digit championship beatings last summer, a few seasons of seemingly unrelenting decline and the size in playing numbers the county offers, Cork’s demise has attracted most coverage.
Their 2019 schedule could be split into three sections. Firstly there was a pair of regret-filled encounters. An injury-time advantage squandered against Fermanagh as Cork spurned a glaring scoring chance to go two up, coughed up possession in their own defence and shipped a point after contentious mark. Then they drew level with Kildare in the 48th minute in Páirc Uí Chaoimh but were outscored 0-5 to 0-2 thereafter when operating against 14 men.
The next February phase saw defeats suffered away to Clare by nine and at home to Meath by six, performances that captured the sense of fragility in a team where belief had seeped away.
The fightback came in March with two wins from their last three games, away to Tipperary and Armagh, and despite losing to Donegal, they were improved against a blue-chip outfit and the scale of the seven-point defeat could be attributed to finishing with 12 men.
But the damage was done by Cork’s early showings, one point from eight in their first four outings and a crippling inability to get anything for their efforts in their three home ties.
The link drawn between their appearance in the 2015 Division 1 decider and their current travails is natural yet the turnover in the squad since is notable. That league final loss to Dublin saw Cork use 21 players with only eight still members of their squad. Mark Collins and Paul Kerrigan are the only current operators remaining from their last league triumph in 2012, the latter the solitary remaining link to the 2010 All-Ireland victory.
Are Cork’s league difficulties surprising? In the 28 matches spanning four campaigns since the 2015 league final, they have posted 10 wins, four draws and 14 defeats. The three Division 2 campaigns have seen them placed fourth (2017), sixth (2018) and seventh (2019). It’s been a continuous slide over time rather than any sudden fall.
Scoring sources had been hard to locate for Cork, after four rounds this year they had the third lowest scoring total across the four divisions. There was a spike in March with totals of 1-12 (twice) and 3-9 in a trio of ties. A shift in approach contributed as Cork looked more comfortable playing on the front foot. The successors to 2018 retirees Colm O’Neill and Donncha O’Connor are not straightforward to find either. O’Neill was a perennial spring shooter, consider he hit 1-6 in a league win last year over Meath, a team that Cork could only muster 1-9 against in February.
For Tipperary relegation is an unwelcome contrast from the form that saw them fly high last year. Freshly promoted from Division 3 they thrived in 2018 but a catalogue of absentees was at the core of their problems this time around. The players missing numbered nine for a spell and they included their prominent names like Quinlivan, Maher, Kiely and Comerford.
Playing with a stronger hand helped them chalk up a league high of 1-19 on the scoreboard yesterday but ultimately a single win over the course of seven games was their downfall. Overturning Donegal when they pounced for three goals in Thurles was a success story in isolation.
They were forced to rue a trio of games. The awarding of a penalty that was netted against Fermanagh drew complaints from their camp over the legitimacy of the decision. A storming second-half against Kildare saw them fall just short on St Patrick’s Day weekend. Yesterday produced a similar tale, arguably their most polished performance of the campaign, but that failed to yield a positive outcome. They shut Clare out for 28 minutes only for that late salvo saw the game swing away from them.
And amidst the gloom enveloping the Cork and Tipperary camps, Clare could toast the preservation of their Division 2 status. It is a tribute to the stewardship of Colm Collins, 2020 will mark their fourth season on the bounce at that level, a world removed from the Division 4 they languished in when he took over in 2014.
This was the season where their good work nearly unravelled. They were not able to chisel out victories with the same frequency but a dogged attitude served them well. David Tubridy’s speculative sideline against Armagh in early February ended up in the back of the net late on, rescuing a draw that would transpire to be critical.
When they required inspiration from their leading lights again yesterday it was supplied. After Keelan Sexton’s levelling goal, it seemed somewhat fitting that Gary Brennan and Tubridy, the two long-serving players who have been ingrained in the Clare cause, notched the points that sealed the victory that confirmed they would hold onto their current status. Defeating both Cork and Tipperary will bolster their claims to an elevated position in the provincial hierarchy.
Away from the blaze of last day league drama at the bottom of Division 2, the serene progress of another Munster county continued. In Dr Hyde Park, Kerry collected their sixth win of the 2019 league with Croke Park and chasing silverware on their horizon next Sunday.
Collectively Clare, Cork and Tipperary won five league games and three of those were nailed on as they were all-Munster fixtures. Further down Waterford and Limerick finished fourth and seventh respectively in Division 4, neither making a strong push for promotion.
This summer Kerry will bid for seven-in-a-row in Munster, reflective of the level of complete superiority they are presently enjoying. The spring form has not pointed to that gap narrowing with Cork’s confidence sapped further, Tipperary suffering a setback and Clare, as much of a boost as yesterday provided, still facing a sizeable task if they are to progress as they are stationed on Kerry’s side of the draw.
On an afternoon when the 2019 league drew to a halt, the concerns over the Munster football scene grew all the more.
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