SEVEN WEEKS LATER, Cork re-emerge into the football spotlight.
In Ennis on Easter Sunday, they were floored deep in injury time by Cillian Rouine’s fisted point for Clare.
Tomorrow in Navan marks their return to action as they are pitted against Louth. The interim began under a cloud of uncertainty, they had to wait for a few weeks for some clarity as to where they were headed after that Munster exit.
“It was the first time ever you didn’t know exactly how to plan and where to plan and who you’re up against,” says Cork manager John Cleary.
“We weren’t 100% sure, but we were fairly sure that we would be in the Sam Maguire unless things went catastrophically wrong for us.
“So it was a bit all over the place, but we decided to get down to business, knuckle down, train as hard as we could. We’re just raring to go.”
Once a line was drawn under the provincial semi-finals, Cork’s presence in the All-Ireland race was confirmed.
The group stage draw narrowed their focus further and pushed Cleary to head down the road to Killarney last Saturday. The reigning All-Ireland champions against the reigning league champions, a scouting mission to check out Kerry and Mayo.
“Great game, great atmosphere, to see two teams went at it. It was great to see the new competition. After the year is over, we’ll see if it has been a success or not
“It does feel like this is a big game aside from the fact that it is the first game. The other two games with the calibre of the opposition, we’ll be playing two extremely good teams.
“But really all we’re focused on now is the Louth match. Had a look at them in the Leinster final because we knew that it was the losers of that, we were going to be up against.
“We’re fourth seeds facing the second seed, so it’s the one we’re targeting.”
There is a sense of familiarity to this fixture for Cork. They had to dig in to hold off Louth in the qualifiers last summer in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, then lost out to Mickey Harte’s men in Ardee in March.
With that Louth venue not deemed suitable for championship capacity requirements, Páirc Tailteann hosts tomorrow’s game. Cork ventured there in March 2022 and were soundly beaten by Meath, an outcome that placed them firmly in relegation trouble.
“That (knowledge) all helps but it’s still a big, big challenge,” says Cleary.
“Still, it’s a home game for them. It’s just down the road and they played their Leinster championship game there this year.”
Cork took the bones of ten days off after the Clare loss, affording their players a chance to reassess. Since then they have got to work. Played Roscommon and Longford in challenge games, Cleary describing them as ‘good workouts’.
Maurice Shanley and Brian Hurley are back in the frame to start tomorrow, Sean Meehan and Killian O’Hanlon also parachuted in to start. Injuries rob the panel of defender Rory Maguire and goalkeeper Chris Kelly.
Cleary is hoping the run of time working with coach Kevin Walsh with help their setup.
“Kevin came in at the end of November. We went from the McGrath Cup to the league. We’ve been trying different systems and trying different tactical situations. The time really flies.
“When the league finished, normally you’ll get a bit of time to tweak for the championship. Two weeks later we had Clare. So, it’s really the last few weeks that we’ve been able to prepare a small bit better and get a bit more time to implement what we’re trying to do.”
In Cork’s to-do list, a few key items jump out from the analysis of the Clare game. They lost control in the second half – struggling to win their own kickouts, failing to get the boost of a major impact from the bench and hurt by a scoring reliance on Steven Sherlock.
“We felt we had done an awful lot of good things in that game. Our game management coming down the straight didn’t help us. We had a very good chance at the end, you know, to go a point up in the very last minute, I think if that went over, probably after the kick out the game was over.
“Instead, we went down the other field and they got a score. It would have probably camouflaged a lot of deficiencies if we had got over the line there by a point.
We are a work in progress and hopefully what we’re trying to do will come to fruition sooner rather than later.”
