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McDonnell: No hiding place in last line of defence

Stephen McDonnell didn’t see the second half of the League final from the same viewing point he enjoyed for the first.

The Cork full-back was substituted at half-time but he’s up front and straightforward in his self-evaluation: “From my perspective of that game I made two errors and it resulted in two goals, simple as that.”

They didn’t go back to county training to remedy what went wrong.

“After a game like that you can’t help but be disappointed. If we went back training straight away, it would have been tough in the camp.

“We went back to our clubs for a couple of weeks and by the time we came back we weren’t as raw about the whole experience.”

McDonnell’s spent the league adjusting to the number three jersey. It’s still a novelty for him.

“Coming up along I was used to playing out the field but the last few years now I’ve been in the full-back line either corner or full-back.

“You’ve a lot more freedom to get involved out the field and take risks because the worst that can happen is that they might get a point whereas in full-back there is no room for error.

“You can look at that as a good or a bad thing. I look at it as a challenge and it’s good in that way.”

It means an understanding with the goalkeeper behind him. For the league he had Donal Óg Cusack, but now the Cork captain is out injured.

“That relationship you build in training so it’s not as big a deal as everyone makes out, whoever steps in dictates the way they do in training, it’s not new to us.

“The best-case scenario would be that Donal Óg would be fit but he won’t be so we have to get on with it.”

McDonnell and his colleagues have had to put away the experience of the league final and focus on Tipperary. They’ve had challenge games to get tested from the outside, and there are plenty internal challenges as well, with players bursting to make the panel.

“We played two tough challenge games a couple of weeks ago,” says McDonnell.

“I thought Dublin were going well, they were pushing themselves in preparation for the Kilkenny game and we held our own.”

“We have players pushing to get in to the 26-man panel as well as the first 15 and that’s made everyone very hungry, there will be players who will be disappointed in both scenarios.”

And Tipperary? They come in with a championship game under their belt against Limerick, which should stand to them. McDonnell is expecting the men in blue and gold to present a tougher challenge than they did in the league semi-final.

“I suppose we have to prove nothing to no one, only ourselves, and we think we are good enough so hopefully we will prove ourselves right.

“You always expect championship to be one step higher than league so we have trained with that in mind, we don’t expect Tipp to be the same team we beat in the national league.”

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