Counihan staying firmly focused

CORK manager Conor Counihan is reluctant to draw comparisons between the Rebel County’s current success at U21 level and their monopoly of the grade in the 1980s that led to a golden period for the senior side.

Monday’s stunning success over Down saw Cork post their second title in three years at this grade, overtaking Kerry at the top of the roll of honour and signalling perhaps a return to a golden era for the game in the county.

Cork teams dominated the U21 grade during the 1980s accumulating six titles in ten years, and laying the foundations for future senior success which saw the Leesiders reach four successive All Ireland finals between 1987 and 1990, winning the latter two&.

Counihan lauded John Cleary’s men for the manner of their pulsating victory over Down in Portlaoise, but the Aghada man is not getting carried away by the current feel-good factor sweeping the county.

“What happened on Monday is very positive, but it’s too early to begin making those kinds of comparisons,” said Counihan, who yesterday received The Boardwalk Cork Sportsperson of the Month Award for April.

“We’ve two All Ireland U21 titles under our belts in recent years, but you’d like to see the minors progressing as well. It’s also important that we see further success at U21 level and that those players can then make the transition to senior.

“It was the manner in which the 21s won that impressed me. I suppose that has been part of their victories all year – that they’ve come from behind and won. Things looked desperate but a lot of work has been done with them by the backroom team of John Cleary and his people.

“They deserve fierce credit and, as for the lads themselves, they’ve had a lot of pitfalls during the year between guys losing out to injury or suspension. Things were really looking dark for the group. I don’t think there have been many All Irelands won under such testing circumstances.”

Counihan didn’t elaborate on which players he seeks to promote to his senior team, but he’ll have been impressed by the contributions of match-winner Colm O’Driscoll, who flourished in the ‘Brian Dooher role’ and sharpshooters David Goold and Colm O’Neill.

“We certainly have an interest in those players and we’ll be talking to fellas in the next number of weeks. I wouldn’t like to be getting into conversations regarding individuals until I have spoken to them.”

Describing winning a national title in Croke Park recently as “important” given the number of losses they’ve racked up in GAA headquarters this decade, Counihan’s side have received huge credit since winning their Allianz Division Two league title.

There have even been suggestions amongst commentators that Cork’s victory was achieved with far greater élan than Kerry’s win over Derry in the Division One decider.

However, Counihan was quick to inject some reality into this comparison. “I saw most of that game between Kerry and Derry and the reality is that Kerry won a Division One title, we won a Division Two title. There’s a significant difference in standards, and we’re very aware of that.”

Preparations, he says, are well under for their Munster SFC first-round meeting with Waterford, but Counihan is guarding against complacency.

“Last year we went down to Limerick, we were raging favourites to win and we were absolutely haunted to get out of there. You look at the weekend in relation to other sports: Munster, the raging favourites, were turned over by Leinster. There’s no room for complacency in this sport.”

Counihan is also hopeful injured duo Kevin O’Sullivan and Michael Cussen will return to do some field work shortly.