Christy O'Connor: Roscommon have made it a habit of inflicting pain on Cork footballers 

Before Cork played Roscommon in the 2023 All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final, Cork’s recent record against the Connacht side was a concern with Roscommon having won their four previous meetings.

One of those games, their 2019 Super 8s clash, was a dead rubber but Roscommon still came to Páirc Uí Rinn and turned Cork over. Roscommon had also beaten Cork in the 2022 and 2018 league campaigns, while they walloped them in the 2016 league in Páirc Uí Rinn by 18 points.

TRIGGER

That defeat was a turning point for Cork football – for all the wrong reasons. Cork’s lengthy stay in Division 1 was always going to come under pressure at some point at the latter stage of the last decade, but that defeat triggered the slide.

As well as conceding an incredible 4-25 at home, the 18-point losing margin buried Cork on score difference when they ended up on the same points total as Donegal, Mayo and Monaghan. 

A 12-point defeat would have been enough to keep Cork up and send Monaghan down. And Cork haven’t been back in Division 1 since.

Roscommon have made a habit of inflicting pain on Cork. When the sides met in the league in March, Roscommon’s 14-point win was Cork’s biggest league defeat since that trouncing from Roscommon in 2016. It was also the heaviest defeat suffered under John Cleary’s reign.

Cork were terrible that night. Roscommon were just far more controlled but, with Cork having also been well beaten by Monaghan in their previous match, the Roscommon beating underlined the gap between Cork and teams well used to life in Division One.

Cork though, have been here before – especially against Roscommon. Prior to their 2023 championship clash, Roscommon had comprehensively beaten Cork in their previous meeting in the 2022 league in Hyde Park.

FAVOURITES

Roscommon finished that 2022 league campaign seven points ahead of Cork, who just escaped relegation. After finishing third in Division 1 in 2023, before beating Mayo in Connacht and then drawing with Dublin in the round robin in Croke Park, Roscommon went into that preliminary quarter-final as favourites. But Cork turned them over.

Two years on and Cork find themselves back at the same juncture against the same side that has continued to give them problems. Yet similar to that 2023 clash, Cork know what it’s like to be backed into a corner – and to be able to fight their way out of it.

A week after getting whacked by Roscommon in March, Cork recorded their biggest and most important win of the season, a round 6 league victory against Louth.

A defeat that afternoon would have meant that Cork would now be playing in the Tailteann Cup, not vying for a spot in the last 12 of the Sam Maguire.

Cork impressively responded to the pressure that afternoon when overcoming Louth by eight points. That defeat nearly cost Louth a lot more than they could have imagined; they only stayed up on the back of their head-to-head league victory against Down, which also meant that they had to reach the Leinster final to stamp their ticket to board the Sam Maguire train. Once they did, Louth won a first Leinster title in 68 years.

BACKED INTO A CORNER

Now that Cork are backed into a corner again, they will seek to borrow on that experience of consistently being able to fight their way out of it against teams around their perceived level.

Cork have regularly shown that capacity in big games where both teams' seasons were on the line. After losing their opening three league games last year, Cork’s fourth round clash against Fermanagh in Ederney looked like a relegation decider so early in the campaign – which it effectively proved to be. Cork won and kicked on while Fermanagh were subsequently relegated.

Cork did something similar – twice – in the 2022 league campaign when they had to beat Down and Offaly in their last two matches to stay up, which they did. The perilous situation Cork had found themselves in was underlined by Down and Offaly being relegated.

Cork have won some big championship games in recent years against teams at their perceived level. The victory against Donegal last year was the most impressive (especially against a team above Cork’s level) but the foundations for that win were laid in Cork’s previous game against Clare in Ennis.

Both Cork and Clare knew that a result there would decide which one of them would emerge from the group... and which side wouldn’t. Cusack Park has long been a tricky fixture for Cork but they negotiated that hurdle, which totally took the pressure off for the visit of Donegal the following week.

It was a similar scenario in 2023 when a round robin win against Louth in their first game effectively secured Cork’s age to the last 12. That victory also eased the pressure on Cork in the group, which was evident in their subsequent performances against Kerry (which they narrowly lost) and Mayo (which Cork won). 

And Cork carried that confidence into their next match against Roscommon, which they won.

Cork aren’t bringing anything like that confidence and form into this match now, having been well beaten by Meath and Kerry in their last two matches.

Still, Cork are backed into a corner again. And they have a decent track record of fighting their way out of those situations against teams at their perceived level.