Next season is by no means All-Ireland or bust for Damien Cahalane and Cork

It’s nearly five years ago now that Diarmuid O’Sullivan talked about his desperation to preserve a proud Cork hurling record.

Time was ticking down on the 2010s and O’Sullivan, twice a Cork selector alongside Kieran Kingston, noted that the county’s record of winning at least one All-Ireland per decade since their first in 1890 was in danger of evaporating.

As it turned out, they lost a cracking semi-final in 2018, came up short of Kilkenny at the quarter-final stage in 2019 and that was that, the record gone.

Fast forward to the eve of the 2023 season and it will shortly be 18 years since Cork’s last MacCarthy Cup success, when O’Sullivan was stationed at full-back in 2005.

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For long-serving defender Damien Cahalane, now 30, an entire career is in danger of passing him by without winning the big one.

“The path that my career has taken me on, I can’t really say that I’d do anything differently,” said Cahalane at the launch of the 2023 Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League. “Myself and the other guys that are there, we’ve done everything to the best of our ability and preparation, which has taken us this far. Three Munster medals isn’t any mean feat either, and I wouldn’t swap them for anything.”

[ Mark Coleman set to miss 2023 season for Cork hurlers after knee surgery ]

Still, the expectation in Cork, particularly when it comes to hurling, is that every year is going to be the year. Their cause for 2023 isn’t helped by the news that outgoing captain Mark Coleman, a former All-Star defender, is set to miss the entire year through injury.

“There’s an expectation, yeah, but I think there’s always an expectation when you play with Cork, like, when I was growing up, Cork were nearly always one of the favourites to win nearly any competition that they entered,” said Cahalane. “Over the years, for a variety of reasons, it hasn’t worked that way for us. We’ve made it to a couple of finals, won a couple of Munster championships, and that’s what we have to show for it.

“But look, it hasn’t been for the lack of preparation, we’ve just come up against exceptionally good sides. Maybe other years we weren’t as good as previous Cork teams and there’s just times like that as well.”

If Coleman’s name is on the debit side of the Cork ledger, Pat Horgan’s remains in the credit column. Surprisingly dropped for June’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway, when he came on at half-time with Cork in a funk and scored four points, the 34-year-old opted to give it another year. Not that Cahalane is surprised to see the championship’s all-time leading scorer continue to chase his All-Ireland dream.

“The guy could stay playing for another five years,” said Cahalane. “He’s a guy that keeps himself so well, he’s like a guy in his 20s. He still has that massive love for the game as well, it never dwindled or went away from him. I’d say he’ll play hurling for Cork for as long as he wants to play hurling for Cork.”

Horgan looked like he’d struck the winning point for Cork in the drawn 2013 All-Ireland final against Clare, only for Domhnall O’Donovan to intervene. He couldn’t have figured his quest for All-Ireland success would rumble on for another decade, though he has also been at pains to point out that even if it doesn’t happen for him, his career won’t be the lesser for it.

“I think it is a massive pressure to put on yourself to come back every year, that it’s an All-Ireland or absolutely nothing,” agreed Cahalane, whose father, Niall, won two of them as a Cork footballer. “Personally, I’m enjoying my hurling at the moment and really enjoying the challenge. What keeps me going back every year is to see can I be the best I can be.”

It’s easy to forget, given their championship disappointment, that Cork reached last season’s National League final. As it turned out, only one of the league semi-finalists, Kilkenny, went on to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals, suggesting that the league is losing its relevance.

“I don’t think that was a terribly conscious thing, to have a good league or a bad league,” said Cahalane. “We’ll be going out to try to perform and to win every game that we can for Cork, make no bones about it.”