ONE FOR ALL & ALL FOR ONE

Top tier football beckons for Rebels.. and not before time

- BY GARRY DOYLE

A RED RISING.. Daniel O'Mahony in action against Kerry's David Clifford last year

THE weight of something doesn’t always announce itself. It doesn’t arrive with a bang. Sometimes it settles quietly, year after year, until you don’t notice it anymore - until the day it lifts.

For Cork footballers, Division 2 had become that kind of weight. Not dramatic - but always there. Daniel O'Mahony grew up into it.

“I’ve only ever played in Division 2,” he says, almost matter-of-fact, like someone describing the weather he’s always known. “So it probably didn't weigh that heavy in that sense for me.”

But then he pauses, because he knows it wasn't like that for everyone.

“For the likes of Brian Hurley, Mags, Mattie Taylor... those guys have been soldiering there for 10, twelve years. Division 2, Division 3. So yeah - it definitely weighed heavy on a lot of the panel.”

You can hear the respect in it. The understanding that this promotion - secured, finally - doesn't belong equally. Some players carried more of it than others. “For those guys in particular, it's a real sense of relief. For me, it’s a relief too. Maybe not heavy - but definitely a relief.” Relief is an interesting word in sport. It doesn't mean joy. Not quite. It means something has ended.

Cork are going back to Division 1. That much is settled. Sunday's game against Meath in Croke Park is something else - not a bonus, not quite a coronation, but a marker. A chance to win something, yes, but also a chance to understand what this team might be becoming.

“Promotion was the goal,” O'Mahony says. “But when you go up there, you're going up to win.”

That's the shift. Subtle but real. Because for years, Cork weren't talking like that.

There is a tendency, when teams climb out of a division, to talk about psychological barriers — the idea that once you escape, something unlocks. O'Mahony doesn't quite buy that.