SEÁN Óg knows the importance of collecting silverware at an early age as much as any Cork hurler down through the years.
After spending their early days in Australia, the Ó hAilpíns were newcomers to Gaelic games when they landed on the northside of Cork city. ‘His father is from Fermanagh, his mother’s from Fiji, neither are hurling strongholds’ – as one of Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh’s most famous pieces of commentary explained.
Seán Óg’s hurling education took place in the heartland of Na Piarsaigh, on the training fields and in Harty Cup battles with the North Mon, and from Cork U14 and Tony Forristal Tournament success, through to Rebel minor, U21 and senior glory days. While the athletic wing-back was from a bumper crop – the 1997-98 U21s with Joe Deane, Ben O’Connor, Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Donal Óg and more – that were destined for greatness early on, Cork must harvest more at underage level to push again for Liam McCarthy.
Ó hAilpín is as frustrated as any Leesider Cork haven’t lifted the U21 All-Ireland since that time in 98, that minor results have dipped alarmingly, as a consequence competing with Kilkenny and Tipp at senior is becoming more demanding.
Speaking at the ‘Centra Brighten Up Your Day’ community event in Páirc Uí Rinn last weekend, where he was a hurling ambassador for Centra, he could see the passion for the great game still burns in the shadow of the Shandon Bells. He knows there is significant work being put in with clubs across Cork and  the development squad structure, overhauled in recent years, may reap a reward yet.
But he also agrees that Cork’s underachievement at minor and U21 is a problem. The county needs to start becoming a force again, whatever it takes.
“We have to start winning ugly, Cork players will always have the dainty touches and all that but we just have to get more steel, probably to win at all costs if need be. At every level, all the ways down.
“People sometimes get fixated with the Cork way, that it has to be flashy, but I’d rather win a shocking game than lose a great one. Down the years they won’t see the flicks and touches when they look back at the result, just if you won. I’m sure games in the 40s and 50s weren’t all classics but when I look at the record books I see they won four in a row in the 40s and it’s means an awful lot to me.
“We have to accept as well that we don’t have a divine right to win anything, I admit that. Those days are gone and other counties are stepping up to the mark, especially in the last couple of years. They’re going through the work that was probably neglected here because of tradition. You’d often hear sure Cork have 30 All-Ireland titles, you don’t need to work. You do though.”
It clearly pains him to refer to Kilkenny in glowing terms. Seán Óg respects them of course; they were after all Cork’s greatest rivals during the peak of his career. But Ó hAilpín knows their attitude and work-rate is a template for all Rebels sides.
“I hate mentioning the Black and Amber, but I have to like. They’re a very talented bunch but the fear with talented people is that they won’t work hard. Everyone else is working as hard as them, but when you’ve their talent and hard work it’s a lethal combination.
“I wouldn’t be getting too despondent about the future because I do think we’re on the right road but we probably have to get more ruthless when it comes to winning or the cutting edge.”
The ferocious effort put in against Tipp in the one-point Munster semi-final defeat could be reflective of Cork’s progress at senior level under Jimmy Barry-Murphy this season. Or yet another narrow defeat and a tale of what might have been. After all, Cork have lost more games than they’ve won since reaching the 2006 All-Ireland (12 defeats, 11 victories).
“We’re sick of moral victories at this stage,” Seán Óg concedes.
Amen to that if Cork are to, eventually, prosper again.
“I don’t know about the other team-mates, but the way I grew up is that championship is championship, you only get one bite of the cherry. The fact that we fell short, we’re bitterly disappointed, okay granted we have the qualifiers coming up, we have to harness that disappointment and turn it into positives.
“I can see why people have been upbeat and positive from last Sunday, but I think they were comparing it to the last couple of years against Tipp. At the end of the day, we had chances to win and probably felt we should have won it but we didn’t.
“We are gutted, we’re bitterly disappointed because I reckon the best route to winning the championship has to be the front door. If you look at the route Kilkenny take every year, it’s straight through, four games, that’s it. Now, all our games are do-or-die, if we lose on Saturday to Offaly that’s it, that’s the season gone after all the talk and work, it’s just gone.
“More so for the younger fellas, it’d be a shame to see their season ending now and not seeing what they’re capable of doing, because the more matches they play the more they show  and get confidence at this level.”
Confidence appears to be an issue for Cork at minor, U21 and senior, how else do you explain so many heartbreaking set-backs by the minimum. When Seán Óg was promoted to the senior ranks in 1996 it was after the ’95 minor All-Ireland. It makes a difference.
“When I broke into the senior side, there were five or six of us coming off the back of successful underage sides and it gives you unbelievable confidence.
“Just talking to the guys from that era, we didn’t fear anybody really coming from minor and U21 because of that. I’m not saying  the young guys coming in aren’t confident but it gives you the ability to stick out the chest and think you own the ground you walk on.
“That probably filtered through in 1999, we were up against a highly fancied Kilkenny side but we were very confident about winning that game.”
One thing giving the 2004 hurler of the year faith in the future is the raw talent within the current squad. The forwards in particular, you suggest.
“Big-time, because the one downfall over the last couple of years, outside of Joe Deane and Ben O’Connor, was we didn’t have a lot of scoring forwards. Now, there are a couple of guys that are in the mix who have potentially great years ahead of them and hopefully they’ll see days where they’ll be walking up the steps of the Hogan Stand or in Thurles or Páirc Uí Chaoimh collecting the Munster Cup.”
Though he turned 35 in May, and was left out of the panel last year by Denis Walsh, the Tipp game was the first time he was omitted from the line-up apart from injury since his breakthrough. He admits it was disappointing and difficult to watch from the stands, but accepts a squad where everyone fights tooth and nail for a berth is beneficial for Cork.
“You’d love to make a contribution one way or another, and it’s going to take a while to get used to, outside of 2007 when I was suspended for a month and the odd league games, the only other championship matches I missed were in 2001 against Limerick and in 08 against Dublin. In front of over 30,000 people, it was a big game and you want to be involved but look, that’s the way it is and I just have to get on with it.”
Seán Óg could still impact on the championship yet, but to do so Cork will have to turn potential into real progress.
“This is old traditional knockout hurling. It’s not that we went into the Tipp game with the comfort that if we lost we had the comfort of another game but all the talk had been June 24.
“No matter how good or bad we did in the league it was June 24, June 24, June 24 and fellas know when you’re wearing a red shirt, no disrespect to the league, but you’re assessed as a Cork player on what you do in the championship, and especially against the blue and gold.
“Saturday we just need to treat as  do-or-
die and we just need to win that game, simple as that.”
Winning, whatever it takes. It should be Cork’s motto at every grade from here on.