Morgan left to plan way forward

Gaelic Games Championship 2007: Cork football manager Billy Morgan is coming to terms with the loss of the championship's top scorer James Masters, whose jaw was broken in Saturday's All-Ireland quarter-final defeat of Sligo.

The injury will sideline the player for the rest of the intercounty season, ruling him out of the semi-final against Meath and the final should Cork progress.

"He's out for three months, as he's probably going to need a plate," said Morgan. "These things happen. He's a big loss but what do you do? You have to get on with it."

This is the second year that Morgan has had to cope with serious injury to a key player. Twelve months ago he lost full back Graham Canty to a cruciate injury in the Munster final replay against Kerry and he missed the All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final as a result.

"He's our leading scorer and the leading scorer in the championship," said Morgan. "I won't say he's irreplaceable but scoring forwards aren't easy to find. Hopefully, someone else will step forward."

It has been a recurrent criticism of Cork in recent years that the side has been so dependent on Masters for scores. Despite a number of promising young players coming on the scene and an All-Ireland under-21 victory there has been little evidence of a more balanced attack.

There has been surprise in the county and farther afield that Daniel Goulding, who starred in the under-21 campaign, hasn't received more of a run. According to Morgan this is partly because of competition from others and partly because of difficulties accommodating both Goulding and Masters.

"Kevin O'Sullivan's been knocking on the door for a couple of years and is a bit older than Daniel. We've brought him (Goulding) in at times but we haven't played him to a large extent. We've had James taking frees and playing a similar role, although Daniel's also able to play full forward."

Cork's full-forward strategy this season has been based on trying to replicate the success of Kerry's Kieran Donaghy as a traditional big target man on the square.

Michael Cussen has had mixed fortunes in the role, at times proving very effective but sometimes being undermined by a lack of decent possession, or by the need to switch him to centrefield.

Morgan accepts the team has found it difficult to vary its more familiar, short game but points out there is a need to combine both approaches.

"People keep saying this to us but you have to play long ball at the right time and from the right distance. Sometimes we're trying to find him from too far out and the ball is being cut out.

"We need to find the right mix between when to run and when to hit it long.

"Louth were three up about 10 minutes into the second half and we hit back with three points in two minutes - all from playing a running game. You need a proper mix. On Saturday we put a lot of high ball in but we didn't win much of it apart from getting the goal off one.

"Michael only came in during the league and it's been hard to get the mix right - to be honest we haven't got it right yet."

Despite having been around at the highest level for a number of years - next Sunday week will be the county's fourth All-Ireland semi-final in six championships - Cork were already outsiders even before news of Masters's injury broke.

"I can understand that Meath would be favourites," added Morgan, "given our last two games. Our game was a poor one and they were quite good against Tyrone."

The Cork manager sympathises with the discontent being voiced about the merits of winning a provincial title given that the teams coming through the qualifiers have the advantage of greater match practice.

"We got an extra game (this year) because of losing the Munster final. I think that helped even if it mightn't have showed.

"It suited us better on Saturday playing two weeks after the last game. Kerry are playing on Sunday after a break of six weeks and that's too much.

"There should be more of an advantage for provincial champions. Two of them are gone already, with Sligo and Tyrone losing. If you win your province you should be rewarded."