CORK INTERIM BOSS John Cleary was left satisfied with his players claiming another qualifier win today but admitted the scale of the challenge facing them will growing them as they enter the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Victory over Limerick today backed up Cork’s success over Louth last Saturday. Both wins have occurred in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against the two teams promoted from Division 3 this year.
The status of opponents facing Cork will now rise as they can be drawn tomorrow morning against the champions of Leinster in Dublin, Connacht in Galway or Ulster in Derry.
“I think the group needed a win to put something back-to-back with the win last week against Louth,” said Cleary.
“We had a torrid League campaign, got out of it at the end and now we’re probably stuttering away for the want of a better word but what we’re trying to do is beat what’s in front of us.
“The Kerry game, we performed credibly enough for 45/50 minutes but that was about it and at this stage moral victories aren’t much good. We have two victories under our belt but we’re under no illusions now, we’re really in the frying pan now but hopefully we’ll prepare again for the next two weeks and see what the draw brings us and see where we get to.
“This is part of the learning experience for everyone.Hopefully this is a project going forward. There are a lot of players in Cork, there are a lot of young players coming but it’s no good unless you start putting displays and victories together now and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“But we’re up against the big boys the next day and it’s going to be really tough. But we’re there. We’ll test ourselves. We’ll see where we’re at and it’s a two-horse race. You don’t know, look at Clare yesterday. Very few people gave them a chance against Roscommon and they went up and they left everything on the line and that’s what I hope we’ll do in two weeks’ time.”
Cleary revealed afterwards positive news on the injury front with star defender Sean Meehan set to resume full training this week. The joint captain and 2021 All-Star nominee has been sidelined since damaging his hamstring in the league in February against Derry.
Midfielder Killian O’Hanlon is back in action after his cruciate injury, playing a club game yesterday, and illness ruled attacker Brian Hayes out of being amongst the substitutes today.
“The only thing with Sean is he hasn’t played since the league. It is one thing to get back to full training, it is another thing to be at match sharpness and be able to play. We’ll have a look and if he can play a part, well and good.”
Cleary admitted Cork were fortunate not to have conceded more scores in the first half as their defensive approach remains an area of concern.
“I suppose we were lucky even in the first half, they could have had a few more scores as well and we did feel our intensity wasn’t there, our intensity in the tackle wasn’t there. We were standing back off Limerick through the middle. They could have had 10 or 11 and we could have been in a bit of bother after playing with the wind.
“I suppose the disappointing thing was today we got our big scores and then we let them down the field and they could have been in for a goal in the end and it would have made it very hard on us but look, it’s something to work on. I thought as well there was probably heroic displays in defence like Kevin O’Donovan, Sean Powter but it’s something we’ll have to work on.
“It has cost us all the year. We’re very open down the middle and on another day it could have cost us big time and we’ll just try and rectify it in the next week or so.”
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