Cork City F.C - gone

[Deiseblue]

Great days!
Was there myself for the 3-2 game , the Blues were 2-0 down and down to 10 men with 7 mins to go but goals from Humphries,Matthews and Alfie Hale won it for us-the most amazing game I ever saw.
If Hibs had won the game there would have been a play off with us for the League Title.
Then as you say we were stuffed in the Cup Final.
The Dav , Wiggie , Baccuzi and that lunatic on goal Joe O'Grady were all Hibs players I remember with great affection.
What a change these days from the huge crowds and indeed characters from the past.

 

[Yorrick]

Not forgetting Sonny Sweeney, John Lawson, Herrick, Martin Sheahan Carl Humphries.

Later on Rodney Marsh graced us with his presence

 

[csirl]

I have been involved with Cork City FC as a supporter since their inception in 1984 and more specifically I am a member of FORAS (Friends Of the Rebel Army Society) www.forastrust.ie since it was founded over two years ago. FORAS now own and run Cork City FC albeit in the First Division rather than the Premier Division.

The history of Cork teams in League of Ireland soccer is second to none in relation to trophies won but where clubs have fallen down is on the financial side. The history of soccer in Cork is littered with the names of clubs that have gone to the wall due to financial mismanagement, greedy owners or downright incompetence. Some teams you might remember (or your parents & grandparents will) would be Cork Hibs, Cork Celtic, Evergreen Utd, Cork Athletic and Cork Utd. All of these folded and the aim of FORAS is to ensure that Cork City FC does not go the same way.

FORAS now operate Cork City FC having been awarded the licence by the FAI and we plan on running the club using financial prudence. While success may elude us on the pitch for a few years it is important that we put solid foundations in place to ensure that we do not go the way of other clubs previously mentioned and continue to have a team representing Cork in the League of Ireland.

We have named the club Cork City Foras Co-operative as this will always be abbreviated to Cork City FC or CCFC and once the liquidator starts selling off assets we will (hopefully) buy the name Cork City Football Club.

Well done, hope the new team thrives.

I know I raised this before on these forums, but with the new start, isnt it time to ditch the green from the team colours? This is a new start and its important that the image of the club reflects that it is a new start and, most importantly, that the club is a Cork club.

In my opinion (and this extends to other sports), any team representing Cork City should be playing in red as it is the city colours. Cork supporters go on about the long history of teams playing in green etc. etc., but its time to break the link with a series of failed clubs - the green has been very unlucky. Image is very important in top level sport and you want to get off on the right footing. Fielding a team in similar colours to the previous team is the lazy option and will give potential sponsors the impression that the new team is just a continuation of the past failures.

 

[Deiseblue]

Not forgetting Sonny Sweeney, John Lawson, Herrick, Martin Sheahan Carl Humphries.

Later on Rodney Marsh graced us with his presence

Great names , I mentioned Carl Humphries in my post- he scored the Blues first goal on that famous day against Hibs !
Dave Bacuzzi went on to run a travel agency in Dublin and a gang from Waterford travelled to Italy with him for the World Cup in 1990 and we gave him a terrible time about leading the Hibs players on a lap of the ground PRIOR to the game !
I also vividly remember Noel O'Mahony,surely the ugliest man ever to grace a football pitch.

 

[The_Banker]

Absolutely Lex.
Always enjoyed visiting Turner's Cross and the much missed Flower Lodge .

A very good book was written by Plunkett Carter a few years ago about the teams/players/charactors that played in Turners Cross and Flower Lodge called "From The Lodge to the Box". It is probably out of print now but it does show up on ebay and second hand book stores from time to time.
Deiseblue: I am too young to remember the Glory Days of when Hibs, Celtic (the real Celtic, not the plastic Paddy team in Scotland) and Waterford were in their pomp but I was reared on stories of Alfie Hale, Carl Humphries, The Dav, Wiggy and Dave Bacuzzi et al..
My father was a huge Cork Celtic fan (and of Evergreen before them) and used to go to The Lodge to shout for who ever Hibs were playing.
As a kid he brought me to see George Best play for Cork Celtic (which was played in The Lodge ironically enough) but I have only vague memories of it. I can remember my dad pointing out "the man in the beard" and I would love to have a programme from that game!
As a kid I got a lego set from Santy and I couldn't make it. Carl Humphries was a friend of my uncle and he called to the house one day and put it together for me.

 

[The_Banker]

Incidently, back in the late 80s the AOH sold The Flower Lodge to the GAA despite the owners of CCFC at the time matching the offer the GAA made.
The selling price (I am reliably informed) was £250,000 which wouldn't get you a 3 bed semi in the area now!

 

[The_Banker]

Well done, hope the new team thrives.


In my opinion (and this extends to other sports), any team representing Cork City should be playing in red as it is the city colours. Cork supporters go on about the long history of teams playing in green etc. etc., but its time to break the link with a series of failed clubs - the green has been very unlucky. Image is very important in top level sport and you want to get off on the right footing. Fielding a team in similar colours to the previous team is the lazy option and will give potential sponsors the impression that the new team is just a continuation of the past failures.

Csirl,
Red is more the colours of the GAA than the colour of soccer in Cork. Incidently, previous to 1919 the colour of Cork GAA clubs was actually Blue.
Cork's traditional colours are red & white, however, it was not always this way. In the early days the county wore a blue-coloured jersey with a saffron-coloured 'C' emblazoned on the chest. All this changed in 1919 when Cork were preparing to play Dublin in the All-Ireland Hurling Final. In the week leading up to the game, British forces broke into the county board offices on Maylor Street in the city centre and seized all of Cork's jerseys. Because of this the county board borrowed jerseys from the now-defunct Father O'Leary Temperance Association team. Cork went on to win the game, ending a sixteen-year barren spell. Because of this win Cork decided to wear the 'lucky' red jerseys in all future games. (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_GAA)
However, Cork City FC did use a red jersey (with a little white) in the mid to late 90s and there was no improvement in crowds and alot of the hardcore LOI fans were aghast! When Brian Lennox took over the club he reverted back to green which proved very popular with the faithful.

Green will always be the colour of LOI soccer in Cork and I don't think it makes a difference for attendance. We have used red as the away jersey from time to time but green will always be the first colour of choice.

We live in the shadow of the biggest league in the world (in financial terms) and the Irish Sporting public prefer to watch that on TV. Even if Irish LOI soccer rose to the levels in Belguim, Holland or Norway I don't think it would be enough to take fans from Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U or Chelsea etc...

 

[bren1916]

The colour worn by the new Cork FC in whatever shape or form it emerges, will not attract 1 single extra supporter lads!
LOI is extremely poor to watch and I for one wouldn't go watch a LOI game if it were free in and on my doorstep. No amount of whining or berating people going across the water is going to entice anyone to watch LOI fare either.
From what I can see and this is not a slight on the soccer fraternity - but Irish people are more interested in actually watching their local parish club (be it GAA,Soccer or Rugby) than below-par mediocre LOI games with the obvious 'element' you're likely to find there (Rovers,Bohs etc..).

 

[The_Banker]

The colour worn by the new Cork FC in whatever shape or form it emerges, will not attract 1 single extra supporter lads!
LOI is extremely poor to watch and I for one wouldn't go watch a LOI game if it were free in and on my doorstep. No amount of whining or berating people going across the water is going to entice anyone to watch LOI fare either.
From what I can see and this is not a slight on the soccer fraternity - but Irish people are more interested in actually watching their local parish club (be it GAA,Soccer or Rugby) than below-par mediocre LOI games with the obvious 'element' you're likely to find there (Rovers,Bohs etc..).

A lot of the players who played in the Cork City FC team that won the LOI in 2005 are now playing in England. The talent is there and always has been.
Fair enough, you can have your Man Us and Chelseas but I want to support a club that i can relate to. I support players I see walking down the street every day and you support a team that pays players £120,000 sterling a week.
This thread was more nostalgic in nature than ranting about Irish people supporting English soccer. Us LOI fans know that we are in the minority
However, the "element" you speak of at Rovers/Bohs games would be a lot more evident at soccer clubs in England.

But, each to there own.

 

[Rovers1901]

However, the "element" you speak of at Rovers/Bohs games would be a lot more evident at soccer clubs in England.

But, each to there own.

You're bang on with that comment The Banker, but of course Irish "fans" of English clubs support them from pubs and living rooms and therefore never witness the "element" attached to their adopted clubs. Man. United's away support has an "element" that would put most clubs in the ha'penny place....doesn't stop people supporting them.

 

[Bill Struth]

You're bang on with that comment The Banker, but of course Irish "fans" of English clubs support them from pubs and living rooms and therefore never witness the "element" attached to their adopted clubs. Man. United's away support has an "element" that would put most clubs in the ha'penny place....doesn't stop people supporting them.

Indeed, the self-styled 'Men in Black.' I've first hand experience of them, in Glasgow when Man Utd played Celtic in the Champions league. They were looking for fights from early in the morning. Scumbags.

 

[Sunny]

We live in the shadow of the biggest league in the world (in financial terms) and the Irish Sporting public prefer to watch that on TV. Even if Irish LOI soccer rose to the levels in Belguim, Holland or Norway I don't think it would be enough to take fans from Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U or Chelsea etc...

Thats the problem with LOI soccer. They have not copped on that they are not competing against the premiership. People in Norway watch and support Premiership teams as much as we do. If it was that simple, the move to summer soccer would have solved a bit part of it. If clubs think that people are simply not turning up because there is a premiership game on TV, then they are deluding themselves. People are not turning up because the product is so poor. And I don't just mean the football which is of a decent enough standard now. The 'experience' of going to see a second string Leinster rugby team play a magners league game is a lot more enjoyable than most LOI games and I go to plenty of both. Even club rugby or GAA is more enjoyable.

 

[Rovers1901]

I largely agree Sunny, but there is definitely an element of the "LOI is rubbish" mentality that plays a not insignificant part in the poor crowds. Witness occassional comments on this thread and indeed any that have a LOI slant.

Take Galway; Terryland Park is a great little ground and although I've never been to the Sportsground in Galway from what I've seen on TV of it, I would say Terryland is actually a better facility from a spectators point of view. So the facilities issue in Galway doesn't wash, ditto Turner's Cross and Tallaght. Although I wouldn't be a fan, the RSC in Waterford is now a decent ground also.

Facilities definitely need improving and in tandem with that LOI clubs need to go out there and get into schools persuading kids into coming to matches, as kids will pester their parents into bringing them etc. The aim of trying to convert some 30/40 year old squeezed (often badly) into a United/Liverpool jersey to drop into a LOI match is futile.

 

[Sunny]

Facilities definitely need improving and in tandem with that LOI clubs need to go out there and get into schools persuading kids into coming to matches, as kids will pester their parents into bringing them etc. The aim of trying to convert some 30/40 year old squeezed (often badly) into a United/Liverpool jersey to drop into a LOI match is futile.

Thats the future. I live in North Dublin and this is the approach Sporting Fingal is taking. It will be a struggle and will take a long time but it is the correct approach. Clubs are going to have to become community clubs. I know they do a lot of work already but there is a lot more they can do. The FAI seem intent on getting playing numbers up (no harm and doing a good job) but they need to do more to get people watching as well.

 

[The_Banker]

Thats the problem with LOI soccer. They have not copped on that they are not competing against the premiership. People in Norway watch and support Premiership teams as much as we do. If it was that simple, the move to summer soccer would have solved a bit part of it. If clubs think that people are simply not turning up because there is a premiership game on TV, then they are deluding themselves. People are not turning up because the product is so poor. And I don't just mean the football which is of a decent enough standard now. The 'experience' of going to see a second string Leinster rugby team play a magners league game is a lot more enjoyable than most LOI games and I go to plenty of both. Even club rugby or GAA is more enjoyable.

I have seen a second string rugby team play Magners league in Musgrave Park and there would be 7,000 present despite there being a rickedy stand and 80% of the people standing on a terrace.
Compare that with Turners Cross where the ground is 8,000 all seater and we would average 1800 a game (was higher in the past few years but with the previous owner in place there was an unofficial boycott in place)
I think where LOI clubs have fallen down is organisation. Historically, clubs have been owned by an individual or a family where it had a one man band operational level who looked after everything... Tickets, advertising, signing of players, commerical sponsorship, etc...
FORAS who are now running CCFC have a BoM of 10 people, each with there own area of responsibility. There will be various committees (volunteer) who will report back to the BoM member in charge of that area.
It has worked well for Shamrock Rovers and we will do everything in our power to make it work for us. A business plan has been put into operation and each area knows their role.
Obviously, it will only succeed if the people of Cork row in behind us (like the people of Tallaght have with SR). We plan on giving it our best shot.

What we don't need is people sniping from the gallery saying "LOI is rubbish etc etc etc" (thats not a dig at you Sunny) at least go to a few games and give it a shot. Who knows, you might even enjoy yourself.

 

[RMCF]

As someone who has been going to a lot of EL games over the last decade or so, I have to honestly say that I found the standard pretty decent.

Add to this our teams doign so well in Europe (admittedly bankrupting themselves in the process) and I think the league is better than most think. Just look at some of the players to come out of it in recent years who are holding their own in England and Scotland.

I think that football in this country will always suffer due to the obsession us Irish have with English and Scottish football. And believe me, Scottish football is no better to watch than Irish football, and thats including Celtic and Rangers.

Its always easy to knock your own.

 

[Lex Foutish]

Not forgetting Sonny Sweeney, John Lawson, Herrick, Martin Sheahan Carl Humphries.

Later on Rodney Marsh graced us with his presence

I was down in the Blackrock end in The Lodge when Hibs got a free outside the opposition box at the City end. Some Hibs player (can't remember who) flicked the dead ball up, Rodney ran onto it and volleyed it into the net. The place went wild!

And who remembers the song, to the air of Son of My Father by Chicory Tip....................................

Rod, Rodney, Rodney,
Rod, Rod, Rod, Rodney, Rodney Marsh!!!!!! (Oh, happy days!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIuBhS70sio

 

[Lex Foutish]

Great names , I mentioned Carl Humphries in my post- he scored the Blues first goal on that famous day against Hibs !
Dave Bacuzzi went on to run a travel agency in Dublin and a gang from Waterford travelled to Italy with him for the World Cup in 1990 and we gave him a terrible time about leading the Hibs players on a lap of the ground PRIOR to the game !
I also vividly remember Noel O'Mahony,surely the ugliest man ever to grace a football pitch.[/QUOTE]



Tevez must be Noelly's son so, Deise!!!

 

[Lex Foutish]

Great days!
Was there myself for the 3-2 game , the Blues were 2-0 down and down to 10 men with 7 mins to go but goals from Humphries,Matthews and Alfie Hale won it for us-the most amazing game I ever saw.
If Hibs had won the game there would have been a play off with us for the League Title.
Then as you say we were stuffed in the Cup Final.
The Dav , Wiggie , Baccuzi and that lunatic on goal Joe O'Grady were all Hibs players I remember with great affection.
What a change these days from the huge crowds and indeed characters from the past.

My favourite Hibs player was probably Tony Marsden. Is it true that he was killed years later in a car crash.? Hope I'm mistaken...............

 

[Capt. Beaky]

I was down in the Blackrock end in The Lodge when Hibs got a free outside the opposition box at the City end. Some Hibs player (can't remember who) flicked the dead ball up, Rodney ran onto it and volleyed it into the net. The place went wild!

And who remembers the song, to the air of Son of My Father by Chicory Tip....................................

Rod, Rodney, Rodney,
Rod, Rod, Rod, Rodney, Rodney Marsh!!!!!! (Oh, happy days!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIuBhS70sio

Never thought I'd read about Superhoops on AAM. I often was in the crowd shouting for RODNEY and later on STAN and later on HAZELNUT and LEROY. Deadly times those. Admittedly a little bit of a breather at the moment but our new manager Neil Warnock (unfortunate anagram) will steady the ship before going for promotion as champs in 2011 and winning the Premiership at the first go. The glory days back again. I still go over to a couple of matches each year but can no longer go six or eight pints before a game. More a few G+Ts before and off to Westbourne Park afterwards for a curry and rake of Cobra. Yeeeee Haaw!