Opportunity knocks to push forward?!

Until last Sunday, there was a perception that the Cork bench extended the length of the pitch, oozing quality all the way from flag to flag. Down goes Ciaran Sheehan and we began to scratch our head. With O’Neill already on the injured list we wondered who the scoring forward being brought in would be. Fintan Gould was the answer! Fiachra Lynch followed shortly after! Then there was midfield. With Walsh off colour, we again looked to the bench. No Kavanagh. No Murphy. Few options left.

For the first time since Copenhagen in 2009, our panel looks threadbare. That was the last time we struggled to field a second team and it was someway understandable considering the pricey location.

On Saturday we head to The Hague for the final Benelux round and less than 36 hours from throw in, there is still some doubt as to whether we will have the numbers for two teams. We’ve just not been able to cope with all the lads leaving and also the fact that we are carrying some injuries and holiday absentees.

Another practical problem is transport! Only myself and Keary have cars now so we’ve had to beg people for ones. I heard Al Rowan and Emmett have offered theirs so that will help. Hopefully all the pieces will fall into place in the end.

That won’t solve Eoin and Conan’s selection problem though as they have a group top heavy on backs. I was putting forward a strong case for a role up front tonight, reminding Eoin of our early days playing together when I guided him through games from wing forward when he was still learning his way!!

He sees himself as a maverick type manager, favouring the unpredictable and boasting of his ability to polish rough diamonds so such a decision would fit perfectly. Indications tonight weren’t leaning towards me getting my hands on the number ten jersey though as I was the only player who didn’t get a run in the forwards at training!! He must have been worried that I would give a display that would make the decision for him!!

There are seven teams in action at the weekend; The Hague and two teams each from Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Belgium. Both our teams are grouped with Lux B and Amsterdam B, with the rest on the other side of the draw. I expect Lux and Amsterdam to do some switching of their teams, thinking they could get an easier ride so we could end up with their A teams in our group, playing as the ‘B’s’!!

Neither of our teams will be as strong as we would like on Saturday but that gives us a challenge we need. Our B’s have always been up against it as they are normally playing A teams, even in The Shield. However, their grit is never in question and they have grinded out their share of upsets over the last few years.

The A’s on the other hand, have rarely caused a big upset or won a tournament when we were not the best team on the day. We need to develop that habit. We need to develop that gritty approach where we dig in, fight, spoil and scrap for wins we don’t deserve against teams that may be better than us on paper. Until we develop that bit of character, we can’t expect to win the Championship again. Saturday is set-up perfectly in that sense.