{"id":501001,"date":"2026-06-15T16:15:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/501001\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T16:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:15:04","slug":"days-like-this-make-it-all-worthwhile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/501001\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Days like this make it all worthwhile’"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Conor Corbett, Saturday in Ballybofey was more than a breakthrough result for Cork.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rebels\u2019 0-17 to 1-13 victory over Donegal, their first win in Donegal since 1998, was built on collective defiance, but Corbett\u2019s contribution off the bench carried its own weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After seasons disrupted by serious injuries, setbacks and long spells of rehab, he had another chance to influence a major championship game again \u2014 and he seized it.<\/p>\n

Cork arrived in Ballybofey as underdogs, facing a Donegal side widely regarded as one of the top teams in the country. The atmosphere was hostile, the odds stacked, and the narrative heavily tilted towards the home side.<\/p>\n

But inside the Cork camp, belief had been quietly building. The Rebels stunned Donegal to book a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that we won, this is a fortress for Donegal,” Corbett said post-match.<\/p>\n

\"ConorConor Corbett of Cork in action in 2024. Picture: Ray McManus\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

“The best team in the country at the moment. Only us in the group knew that we had it in us. It was just about getting a performance and we got a performance there today, thank God.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose there was a bit of pressure on Donegal. They\u2019re on their home patch. I suppose home advantage is a big help these days. We had it in P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Rinn in 2024. We came up here then, a long journey. There wasn\u2019t that much pressure on us. We came up here and we just threw the shackles off and we went at it. Thankfully we put in a good performance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cork\u2019s season has been shaped by lessons learned the hard way \u2014 a heavy defeat in Derry, a setback in Killarney, a response against Meath, and a growing sense that consistency was within reach. Corbett felt that journey was visible in Saturday\u2019s display.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of work and determination. We\u2019ve had a lot of highs and lows over the years as you know and I suppose we\u2019ve learnt a lot of lessons now. We went back to Killarney, and got a bit of a lesson against Kerry.<\/p>\n

“Came out then against Meath and put in a performance. It was just about if we could put in performance after performance.”<\/p>\n

For Corbett personally, the moment carried even more meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to be back. A lot of dark days and a lot of injuries and setbacks but look, these days make it all worthwhile.<\/p>\n

“I suppose you\u2019ve just got to keep going. A serious injury builds resilience at the end of the day. I suppose you have to have that in this game and look, just glad to be back on the field and injury-free.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ConorConor Corbett of Cork in action against Ronan Jones of Meath this year. Picture: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Corbett made an immediate impact against Donegal, clipping over a point that settled both him and the team at a crucial stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt settled me into the game. After 40-50 minutes with the new rules, games open up and you see there it was end-to-end and anyone could have won it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With the new rules and the two-pointers, it can swing any way. I hit post there at the end, but thankfully we saw it out and look, it\u2019s brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see there it took 21 players to get us over the line. We\u2019ve built a panel. We were missing Colm O\u2019Callaghan today who\u2019s been probably our best player all season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Dave Buckley was unlucky, missed out with injury and a lot of fellas have come back as well. As John Cleary says, it\u2019s just next man up and everyone stepped up to the plate today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cork supporters \u2014 heavily outnumbered but fiercely vocal \u2014 made their presence felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were well outnumbered anyway but we have a great, die-hard crew that follow us all around the country. You can even see it there, what it means to the people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In fairness to them, they\u2019ve come five, six hours up the road and it\u2019s great to give it back to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Look, we\u2019re back to Croke Park and that\u2019s where we want to be. That\u2019s where we set out to be at the start of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Conor Corbett, Saturday in Ballybofey was more than a breakthrough result for Cork.\u00a0 The Rebels\u2019 0-17 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-501001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}