Neptune boss McCarthy set for derby cracker
The sides have already met in the current competition but that was with just one game gone.
That game at The Mardyke arena resulted in a rout that sent Neptune coach Stephen McCarthy, rushing back to the drawing board with the general feeling that it might be a season too soon for Neptune despite the fact that the squad, while young, had a lot of SuperLeague experience behind them.
“That game came a bit too early for us,” he admitted. “We had been trying some things and then one of our Americans got injured. To be honest we never got off the ground that night. It was disappointing.
“But we are a different team now. We have been on a winning run and there is this thing about a winning mentality that gives a team confidence.
“I know only too well that in derby games the form book goes out the window. I can remember during my playing years when we were expected to beat Demons and came out on the wrong side and then there were the times when Demons were favourites and we won.
“There is a certain passion about derby games that makes them so special and that is why I, personally, am looking forward to this one. I know it is at a bad time of the year with the Christmas festivities and all that but this is going to be a game worth seeing.”
He will be without the services of Mick McGinn who had a holiday booked before the date for the game was announced but, with Neptune playing so well at the moment, he feels this won’t be a huge problem. “We have been playing the bench and I know that there are plenty of fellows who only too willing to step up. That is how we have been playing for the past few weeks,” he said.
Demons coach Douglas Leichner was thrown in at the derby deep end for his second game in the SuperLeague and he came out all smiles.
“It was quite an experience,” he recalls. “It was played with a lot of passion — it reminds me of the Red Sox and the Yankees in baseball. It is a great occasion.”
Like McCarthy, he will put their first derby game aside in his approach to tomorrow’s tie.
“Really we were just getting to know each other,” he said. “Neptune are playing well at the moment. Stephen McCarthy has done a good job.
“We have been playing well all season. I have a real good bunch of guys who work very hard and are totally focused. They are a hungry team.
“I am looking forward to it. Games like this are good for basketball in Cork. There is great rivalry between guys who live across the street from each other and drink in the same pubs. It is good for Irish basketball.”
