Corrigan aims to prove Meath win was no fluke

IN some circles, Dom Corrigan has been acclaimed as giving the half-time team talk of the summer.

Even though Joe Kernan managed to get a tremendous recovery from his All-Ireland champions the night before, Corrigan took a Fermanagh side, two points down and unexpressive on the field, inside and 45 minutes later, they had ended Meath’s championship.

“It was a good result,” Corrigan says, understating somewhat. “It was a great second-half performance. But too much has been made of what we said to the lads at half-time. We just knew they weren’t playing anywhere near their true potential and told them so.

There were missing that little bit of concentration.

But it was the goal a minute or so into the second half that really lifted the team.” And now Fermanagh stand on the verge of a last eight place. Only have to negotiate the considerable hurdle of Mayo in Markievicz Park tomorrow evening.

Since the draw was made, a lot has been made of the John Maughan factor. The Mayo manager came to Fermanagh on a wave of hype in 2001, but things didn’t work out-and actually went a bit sour towards the end with Maughan criticising some of the more senior players.

“I don’t think John Maughan is going to be a factor. The players who worked with John have tremendous respect for him, and appreciated what he tried to do in Fermanagh. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. But out of the 30 players on our panel, 15 of them weren’t even on Maughan’s panel. What is of much more concern, and what is a much more motivating factor for the team is to prove to themselves and their supporters that the second half in Clones was not a one-off. This is a different challenge to the Meath game. Morale has been lifted now from the disappointment of losing the Ulster semi-final, and team spirit is good, but Mayo are a very good side. If they had scored that penalty in the first half against Galway, I think they would have gone on to win the Connacht title. Against Meath, we were playing a team with a number of great individuals. Against Mayo, we are playing a very good team.” A team that has had its problems, though. Fergal Kelly will miss the game, as will Fergal Costello. In the league, it was a one-point victory over Mayo that saw Fermanagh enter their first league semi-final in 68 years. In a tight match in Castlebar, Fermanagh kicked 13 wides while Mayo kicked 19. But, Fermanagh held the advantage in scores taken, 13 points to 12 points. “Well, that was a different Mayo team. Kieran McDonald played that day, and everything Mayo tried in attack went through him. And fortunately, for us, he didn’t have his shooting boots on, kicking 10 wides. Since then, Mayo’s attack have looked a more cohesive unit; they kicked 14 points against Mayo and one less than that against Galway. This is a very different Mayo team we are going out to play now.”