PERHAPS STEPHEN KENNY has built his revival on a solid bed of Corkness.
The word entered a kind of official usage in Irish sport back in 2019, when GAA County Board Chairman Tracey Kennedy made it the goal of a five-year plan to revitalise Gaelic football in the county and restore the people’s supposedly waning sense of Corkness.
She helpfully defined it as “that air of confidence just on the right side of arrogance – an unparalleled pride and our insatiable desire for Cork to be the best at absolutely everything.”
Her cause might have been helped had a couple of star underage Gaelic footballers in Cork not decided to become international footballers instead, but at least now the entire country can take joy and vicarious triumph in the exploits of John Egan and Chiedozie Ogbene.
Their regular contributions in the last year have been buttressed by impacts from Alan Browne, Conor Hourihane, and Caoimhín Kelleher, with all but Hourihane involved in the 2-2 draw with Belgium on Saturday.
Kenny credited Egan’s front-foot defending with swinging the momentum of Saturday’s game, before Ogbene equalised prior to half-time and then substitute Browne equalised for a second time late in the game, heading in, you guessed it, Ogbene’s cross.
“I saw a funny thing on Twitter”, grinned Egan, “It said Cork 2 Belgium 2, so I had a bit of craic with the boys about that. But I’m delighted for the lads. Chieo has been brilliant and deserved his goal. And Browney came off the bench and impacted the game. So to have that impact on the game shows what he is all about. I’m buzzing for the lads for the two goals, and it will give them a huge amount of confidence now.”
Egan played with Ogbene at Brentford, a club the latter left in search of first-team football. “He has been a breath of fresh air, on and off the pitch, he’s a special person, really humble and hard working, he came in, got his chance, grabbed it with both hands and it’s fair to say his performances have been unbelievable, really, since he’s come into the team, another goal on Saturday will only do him the world of good, for his confidence.”
Nobody is lacking confidence at the moment, and that can only be partly attributed to the inherited traits of those from Cork. Kenny works on building players’ confidence: Ogbene talked about it last week, of how Kenny and Keith Andrews have taught him to ignore any potential inferiority complexes attached to his current status as a League One player.
And the manager hasn’t been shy in talking Egan up either, saying last year he believed the 29-year-old is capable of playing in the Champions League.
“A bit was made about that”, replied Egan when it was put to him, “but maybe it was just the manager trying to give me a bit of confidence. But I take confidence from trying to do well for the manager here and trying to do well at my club, and the full focus is now on the game tomorrow night.”
Saturday was evidence he’s certainly doing well for his manager.
Egan pushed up high and aggressively throughout, and Kenny said his winning of a challenge midway into the Belgian half on Saturday was the moment on which the first-half turned. Ireland were a goal down and Belgium had recorded 86% of the possession up to the point Egan won his challenge. Minutes later they were level.
“I felt I played well. And the manager obviously gives me a lot of confidence to go out and play well, so I enjoyed the game and throughout the team there were some huge performances and as a team we played really well so it was an enjoyable game to be a part of, and it definitely didn’t feel like a friendly.
“When you play on the outside centre back, you have licence to go in and put pressure on whoever is in their No. 8 or No. 10 position, obviously [with] the security of [Shane] Duffy behind you and the other centre half. The other day it was important myself and Seamus [Coleman] could be released from our traditional positions into midfield and try to nick things. Just after half time Seamus nicked one and we nearly scored from it. It’s something we have been working on, something we have to do. We want to be proactive, if you want to play the game in the opposition’s half, the other day we controlled a lot of the game in their half even when they were in possession. We pressed really well, Jeff [Hendrick] and Josh [Cullen] worked their socks off and the front three put loads of pressure on their back three, that allowed us to get higher up the pitch and get into areas like that.”
Not that Saturday’s draw was without its troubles, most notably the cheap second goal conceded from a corner kick.
“It’s definitely something we look back on and analyse to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Belgium overloaded the box a bit, pulled Chieo out of the six yard box. On the pitch as senior players – senior defenders – we should have been more alert to it. It was hugely disappointing to concede from a corner in a game where we could have gone on to win, it’s something we have to learn from.”
While they’ll learn from their mistake, you can’t imagine they will at all be cowed by it.
This week on the Front Row – The42’s new rugby podcast in partnership with Guinness – panellist Eimear Considine makes a welcome return… and she’s brought her Ireland roommate, Hannah O’Connor, along too. They chat about broken noses, tanning routines, initiation songs and balancing the Women’s Six Nations with teaching, plus how one fan named her child after Ireland winger Beibhinn Parsons! Click here to subscribe or listen below:
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