KERRY BOSS EAMONN Fitzmaurice has described Cork’s footballers as the ‘most maligned bunch in the country’ and disagrees with the scathing assessment that Tomás Ó Sé delivered of the Rebels last week.
Ó Sé expressed his belief that Cork were ‘rudderless’ and lacked leadership.
Last night Fitzmaurice revealed his respect for Ó Sé revealing his opinion but it is not one the Kingdom manager is aligning himself with.
“Look, with Tomás that’s his opinion. I think that’s the attraction of him as a pundit. Outside of the dressing room because he would have kept a very low profile in general, many people wouldn’t have known that he’s sharp on the game and very insightful and he’s honest and he’ll say what he’s thinking.
“It definitely wouldn’t be my opinion and it wouldn’t be anyone’s opinion in the camp. I imagine Brian Cuthbert was rubbing his hands together in glee when Tomás said it because Cork are very motivated anyway.
I would imagine the players would be a bit miffed at it.
“I was thinking about them during the year, they have to be the most maligned bunch in the country full stop, football or hurling. If you think back to even when they won their All-Ireland in 2010, I think they got very little credit for it.
“If you contrast it to the credit Donegal for their All-Ireland in 2012 or either of the Dublin All-Irelands or even our own All-Ireland last year, they got no credit whatsoever.”
Fitzmaurice pointed to Cork’s overall league record rather than focusing on their final disaster against Dublin in April.
“They’re more motivated considering the amount of bad press they got after the league final even though they had a very good league up to that point beating all of the famous ‘big four’ that are there, beating Monaghan above in their own backyard.
“I would see Cork as a very dangerous animal, they’re in the very same situation as we were this time last year. They’re being written off completely.
“I imagine in the Cork camp there would have been a siege mentality anyway because of the way they’ve been picked at within their own county and outside their own county.
“I imagine this would have thrown petrol on the flames but, like I said, we’re not foolish to think that or underestimate Cork.
“If any of our lads need a reminder all they need to do is think back to last March in Pairc Ui Rinn.
“They’re really in a situation when they’ve nothing to lose. We’ve lost the element of surprise and people are expecting a big performance from us.”
