Rebels look vulnerable at the moment

When you are retired from inter-county football and go to watch matches, you quickly forget that most of the players on view are probably carrying some form of injury or returning from a spell out injured.

My own memories of 12 seasons with Meath were of a tiredness after a match or training that may just have abated when the next game or session would come around. With the huge increase — to four or five nights’ training — nowadays I can only imagine the fatigue levels of a modern inter-county player. With that in mind we should cut them some slack.

With a mental starting point of Cork conceding 1-12 to Kerry in the first-half of last year’s Munster final, I was keen yesterday to see what surgery Conor Counihan would carry out to his defence as this year got underway in Armagh. Wing-forward Conor O’Driscoll played in defence, thus leaving Graham Canty to play a free-role. This makes a lot of sense to me and Canty showed he still has a lot to offer to Cork both in football and leadership terms. Of course the downside is this leaves Cork playing with five forwards against six backs. If their movement is poor the outfield players are not going to kick the ball in and give away possession.