![\"Cork's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5130354_4_articleinlinemobile_cads.jpg\" "\\"Cork's")
Cork’s Eoin Cadogan in action against Aidan O’Shea of Mayo in 2017. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nA greater sense of belief has been key to the progress made this year by the Cork football team, Eoin Cadogan feels.<\/p>\n
The Douglas man was part of the last Cork side to win the Sam Maguire Cup, back in 2010, and the Rebels\u2019 semi-final appearance two years later has not been matched in the time since then.<\/p>\n
John Cleary\u2019s side will have the chance to right that wrong when they take on Mayo in Saturday\u2019s quarter-final at Croke Park (4pm) and, when asked to highlight the areas of major improvement, Cadogan pinpointed a couple of factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there’s a bigger squad there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAthletically, they’ve built over the last couple of years. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, Kevin Murray has come in the backroom team this year and added a huge amount of energy, then you’ve obviously the experience of Kevin Walsh, John Cleary is in his fifth year now and he’d have a great understanding of what his best 15 is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think belief is the big word, really. Nobody really expected Cork to get over the line in Ballybofey, that’s just being honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put on a performance like they did, give themselves an extra week now and draw Mayo in an All-Ireland quarter-final, they should be humming going in to Croke Park. They definitely have the athleticism and the skill level to perform up there. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think both Mayo and Cork are actually very similar in terms of how sometimes it tends to be absolute chaotic in their play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there’s going to be huge shootout between both of them and you’d expect goals as well. I think [Steven] Sherlock’s in tip-top form, so is Ryan O’Donoghue inside in the inside line for Mayo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it\u2019s going to make for a cracker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork’s Eoin Cadogan in action against Aidan O’Shea of Mayo in 2017. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
Cadogan, speaking in his role as a Boyle Sports GAA ambassador, is of the view that a rising tide is lifting all boats in Cork football, especially with the minor team having secured a place in the All-Ireland final.<\/p>\n
While reluctant to look back at 2010 too much, he can see some similarities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s 16 years ago, so there’s been a lot changed since then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate even looking back on those things, but the one thing I would say is that I suppose the longer that you’re playing together and training together, the more of a tight-knit, family-orientated feeling there is to it and we had that in abundance in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn Cleary has built on that playing group that he has. Tommy Walsh at 6 has been an incredible leader and they’re building their squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilarly, with the minors, you see them in an All-Ireland Final with Keith Ricken \u2013 so there is a little bit of a buzz about football again, and it was much needed because for long periods it had been quite negative and a question of access to where we were going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A greater sense of belief has been key to the progress made this year by the Cork football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-516098","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\/516098","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=516098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}