PROGRESS IS LIKE the gains they talk about in disclaimers about buying shares. Just because you’ve made some doesn’t mean you’ll continue with your trajectory.

Cork are out of the race for Liam MacCarthy after two one-point losses. The nature of those defeats, especially Sunday’s to Limerick, when looked at in the context of the two previous championship losses to the All-Ireland champions, means that Cork have moved forward.

There’s a chasm between last summer’s 11-point hammering to them and a thrilling contest in the balance until the final whistle.

So nobody could justly say Cork haven’t come on. No fair-minded supporters could state the application and improvement have not been clear. Yet it still hurts to lose. And the loss, narrow and all as it was, does not mean that we’re a coming force or any such cliche. 

In reality, it’s a long, tough road to even get back to this level of hurling, this level of fitness, skill, tactical acumen and team spirit. Cork, the same as everyone, will start from zero ahead of next year’s campaign. Right now that feels like a long way off. 

William O'Donoghue and Robert Downey battle for the ball. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

There’s a well known saying about a man never stepping into the same river twice – for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. Having done my Googling, I’ve learnt that Heraclitus said this in the 6th century. He was a Greek philosopher who believed that nothing is permanent except change. Like the rest of us, Heraclitus would have enjoyed the Munster championship, where the only certainty is uncertainty and the difference between fortune and desolation is the width of a pre-phone-era match ticket.  

There’s a less poetic saying that coaches in many sports employ, about controlling the controllables. Pat Ryan and his Cork management team have done that as well as could be reasonably expected. They can’t control how good their competitors are going to be, and they have been excellent. They have worked with the people they have with the goal of being as good as they can be. Did they max out on their potential in 2023? No, but very few teams ever would manage that. Have they got as close as could be reasonably expected? Yes, I’d say so. 

Next year you hope that the training put in and wisdom acquired this year will mean that the core of Cork’s squad start from a good place. The return of injuries such as Mark Coleman, Robbie O’Flynn and Alan Connolly will deepen the ranks, along with some of our great young men from the U20 squad. 

But again, given the nature of sport, there will be different injuries next year, and different challenges in the form of emerging players among your competitors’ ranks, while some in your own squad will decide to step away.      

You have to bring it all together again, and that’s where Pat Ryan comes in. I believe passionately in his ability to get the best from our players. The workrate and endeavour from our players has been clear. The fact they gave so much of themselves in defeat on Sunday made it tougher to take. As we’ve said before, a cruel master is sport. An obscene investment of effort guarantees nothing, though you’re guaranteed nothing without putting it in. 

And Ryan has not come out with any old nonsense about it being a building process or incremental steps or anything like that. Right from the gun he said that Cork’s ambition every year is to win the All-Ireland. He’ll never patronise the players or the Cork public with anything less.

While there are no guarantees about further progress in 2024, I am confident that there are the best of people doing everything they can to push us on. That’s enough for me. I believe it will get us back to where we want to be.

One man who I’d bet will step back into the river in 2024 is Patrick Horgan. I can’t read Hoggie’s mind but I’d be really surprised if Sunday was the last we saw of him in red. The simple fact that he was the standout forward during the game tells you that he’s still got it, if you ever had a doubt. 

Not that it would be his primary motivator, but the ongoing back and forth between himself and TJ Reid over the top all-time championship scorer is something you wouldn’t want to step away from. Only when they’re both finished will we truly appreciate what they’re doing now. 

I don’t think that farewell is imminent in either case. 

It’s hard to separate Patrick Horgan the hurler from the man. I know that can be read the wrong way. No person’s worth is bound up with their performance on the field. What I’m driving at is Hoggie’s obsession with hurling. Some use a paintbrush, sing songs or play the piano. Hoggie’s intelligence and creativity are expressed through the game; we’re lucky to be able to see the results. 

Of course he’ll have to hang up the hurley someday but, even when he finally stops playing for the Glen’s junior team, probably in his late 50s, he’ll still be immersed in it all, be it through coaching, the simple joy of pucking the ball against the wall and even just thinking about the game, which he does a lot. 

His dad, also Pat, is another thoughtful hurling man who coached his son from a young age in the basic skills. Then, with time and repetition, he’s enjoyed trying to perfect the art. Every hurler knows that perfect is a level we never reach, but is there a better way to spend your days?  

Hoggie’s goal on Sunday was right out of the Glen ball alley. They play a game there that I’ve been in on a few times. Five or six lads in at the wall, sometimes more. Everyone gets three lives. The first man up hits the ball then the next goes. He must get it back to the wall before it bounces twice. 

They’re a tough crowd to keep up with in the Glen, the skill levels are high and they’re streetwise; seeing every angle. As the field thins out it’s always Hoggie in the mix, driving the pace, moving his feet, striking cleanly off either side from and from all sorts of outrageous angles. To get the better of him here is a rare feat. The hand-eye coordination, dexterity and strength in his wrists are off the charts.  

After breaking the ball to himself on Sunday, he was travelling at a less than favourable angle. Without making it look like any great task, he was able to subtly pivot and pull, generating phenomenal power in his first-time strike. Nickie Quaid will feel he should have stopped it, but most other goalkeepers would have failed to get a hurley on the ball. I know what it’s like to face his shots. 

Patrick Horgan celebrates his goal. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

We’d be the first onto the pitch for Cork training and, at his insistence, the last off. An hour before training I’d be practising puckouts and he’d be taking frees from every spot. We’d then return the sliotars to each other.

After training I’d shape to leave. “Half session for the goalkeepers, yeah?” 

I’d laugh along with his transparent attempt to get me riled up, but he always got his preferred outcome. So having faced hundreds of shots in training, my finisher was another hour of Hoggie flaking penalties and shots from all other positions at me. You might think you’d get used to stopping his efforts, but he’s got a way of reading every situation and putting the ball exactly where you’d prefer it didn’t go. Even on the unusual occasions where it’s not beyond your reach, he hits it with such conviction that it’s so tough to keep out. 

I’d wonder, if I stood in this goal for three more hours, would he stay there pinging it off his left and right, every shot considered and then executed with venom? Let’s just say you wouldn’t want to put it to the test.

There’s a fella above in Ballyhale he should meet for a puck around. Who’d be the last man standing? That’s a question we’re a while away from answering yet.