Cahill: We don’t fear Cork

THE sighs of relief was audible in Cork and Antrim last night.

The counties have been paired together in the Guinness All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals, avoiding a Kilkenny side who were awesome and ruthless in their destruction of Galway in Thurles.

Clare and Offaly have each other to worry about before a meeting with Brian Cody’s three-in-a-row-chasing champions comes into focus.

Antrim was perceived as the desirable draw, but Cork coach Donal O’Grady wasn’t having any of that. “Antrim have shown great improvements in the last few years,” he stressed last night.

“They troubled Wexford last year and Tipperary the year before. They are going to be very difficult to beat and we are going to prepare as best we can, and as professionally we can in the coming weeks.”

Antrim boss Dinny Cahill insisted that this assignment holds few fears for him, or his charges.

“I am looking forward to it. We had a feeling we could be drawn against Cork and that is how it worked out. We had a chat about it at training this (Sunday) morning and that is one thing that I said to the lads when they went for a ball: ‘You have to imagine you are marking some Cork player’.”

Cork defeated Antrim by three points (0-14 to 2-5) when they met in the third round of the NHL last March.

“You have to be gearing yourself for something. All along we were in no man’s land and it is a very difficult way to prepare. Now we know who we are facing and all the training sessions can have greater purpose,” the Antrim boss added.

Cahill was an interested spectator in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, for Saturday’s qualifier between Cork and his native Tipperary. However, he admits that it is impossible to gauge much from that performance. “It was a very dogged game, nothing like the free flowing one we had in Thurles last night between Kilkenny and Galway. But I think the pitch in Killarney was definitely a factor.”

Cahill’s side haven’t had a championship outing in the five weeks since their Ulster final replay win.

“Despite the break, our preparations are going reasonably well. We have had good training sessions and a few challenges. We are playing Waterford on Saturday and that will be a good test. However, we have a bit of a doubt about Liam Watson who has a knee ligament problem.”