Colman Corrigan: Tomás Ó Sé blast perfect motivation for Rebels

Colman Corrigan says Tomás Ó Sé’s damning comments about Cork will be more unwelcome in Kerry and should add a couple of points to Brian Cuthbert’s team’s score in next month’s Munster final.

As former county forward James Masters on Twitter yesterday supported his Nemo Rangers club-mate’s assessment of Cork, management and county board officials refused to comment about the ex-Kerry defender’s claims that the team were untrustworthy and lacked leadership both on the pitch and sideline.

Two-time All-Ireland winner Corrigan admitted a lot of Cork people wouldn’t find fault with Ó Sé’s words.

However, he said such an attitude ignores the serious amount of work put in by Cuthbert and his players, while he expects Eamonn Fitzmaurice won’t be too pleased with his former team-mate’s attack on Kerry’s July 5 opponents.

“If I was in the Kerry management, some of whom played with Tomás like Eamonn Fitzmaurice and selector Diarmuid Murphy, I wouldn’t fancy the comments he made. Eamonn Fitzmaurice is such an astute man that he wouldn’t want to see any blade of grass unturned.

“As much as a lot of the Cork public might be thinking the same thing, it’s a completely different thing to put it in print in a national newspaper. It’s wickedly bad timing and I can only see it working one way. If Cork have any bit of resolve, it can only work to their advantage.

“I know Tomás and the Ó Sés who are such passionate Kerry men. They would do anything in their power to beat Cork in a Munster final and that’s fair enough and we would be hoping Cork are the same. But this is really fuelling the fire. The Kerry management would be thinking they’ve enough hassle trying to beat Cork without this. It will only add a couple of points to Cork’s scoreline in Killarney.”

Masters published a series of posts on Twitter where he backed Ó Sé’s questioning of Cuthbert’s decision not to start Fintan Goold against Clare last weekend. They read: “Just read Tomas O Sé article on the Examiner. I totally agree. Fintan Goold plays the entire league midfield and then just dropped. There is ruthlessness as a manager but I think Cuthbert hasn’t the trust of a lot of his players. I know I couldn’t if I played the entire league and [was] dropped the week of championship.

“You need a manager to have faith in his players and not have them thinking if they make a mistake they won’t start the next game. Hope Cork do great this year but I really don’t think Cuthbert is up to it.”

Masters’ comments might not be received well by club-mates Stephen Cronin, Paul Kerrigan and Barry O’Driscoll, all of whom started this past weekend’s game in Páirc Uí Rinn. Cronin made his championship debut while Kerrigan and O’Driscoll were irregular starters earlier this year.

Ó Sé will also draw the ire of the Cork County Board after his interview on Newstalk on Tuesday. “They (Nemo) picked me for the first round of the championship but the first round was in mid-May or early May and depending on how Cork do in the championship — this is what I think is ridiculous, in terms of the fixture delay that we have — the next round could be August.”

He added: “A dual player could mess up a fixture for two or three weeks. That’s just the way it is. I can’t understand how it works down here.”