A HURL LOT OF LOVE...

Cadogan says optimism around small ball game is ruling the roost in Cork

- Pat Nolan

WITH dead rubbers aplenty in the last round of the Allianz Leagues, particularly in hurling, Cork are one of the few counties with something at stake in both codes.

Not that you'd necessarily know it.

The live TV cameras will descend on SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh for a de facto League semi-final for the hurlers against Galway this evening.

A big attendance is expected; a crowd of 23,402 turned out at the venue for their draw with Limerick earlier in the competition, 22,193 for the win over Kilkenny.

Meanwhile, the footballers travel to Cavan tomorrow afternoon needing a win to put as much distance as possible between them and the Tailteann Cup. Their support could nearly travel up in the one car.

You may say that that's the reality of one team being on the up and competing at the back end of the Championship while the other flatlines at best, but not quite in Cork, as Eoin Cadogan, who played for both for several years, points out.

"There's much more optimism probably from a hurling perspective than football," he says. "And that was the case when we were winning football All-Irelands and the hurlers weren't. So you've got to reference those things too."

For illustration, he recounts an episode from when Cork footballers were at the top of the pile while the hurlers were the also-rans.