Counihan proud of Cork’s ‘battling performance’

IF Conor Counihan’s debut season was defined by improbable comebacks against Kerry, yesterday in Fitzgerald Stadium he received a taste of his own medicine.

With 11 minutes remaining, his side held a five-points lead and in excellent shape to book a Munster final berth.

Then a turbulent finale allowed Kerry to come storming back and force Counihan and company to plan for a replay on Saturday evening. Despite their slippage, the Cork boss shrugged his shoulders and has already moved on.

“That’s sport, you have to take it and we’ll move on. Kerry came back and had their period of dominance, where they looked like they were going to take the game.

“We rallied and got a point that looked like being enough. But they came back to hit the levelling point and, all in all, I’d have to be pleased with our battling performance. Coming to Killarney was a big task and we’ve come away without a loss.”

When it came to scrutinising the game, the Aghada man batted away questions at will. On the matter of key areas where Cork need to improve he wise-cracked, “Will you be going to Jack with that? Tell me his answers and I’ll come back to you!”

The issue of injury-time duration was swiftly deflected as well. Bryan Sheehan’s equaliser came two minutes after the allotted time had elapsed, yet Counihan stated: “well if there was 24 minutes of injury-time, it wouldn’t matter as the score stays the same.”

On other matters Counihan was more forthcoming. The belief that his players are ready to challenge Kerry on provincial and national levels continues to brew on the evidence of this game.

“A lot has been made of that in the past. This is our fourth meeting since I was in charge and there’s been very little between us. I’m under no illusions that next week will be any different. It will go all the way to the wire. I’d like to think that we have an edge.”

And he was fulsome in his praise of attacking tyro Colm O’Neill, who was shoved into the fray in the final minutes and demonstrated a steely nerve in lofting over an injury-time 45 that briefly bore the look of a match-winner.

“He showed fierce bottle. That guy has done so much already this year with the U21s and everything. He went into that U21 All-Ireland final playing on one leg and played a stormer. He came out there today and stood up.

“That’s where men are found and in fairness to the guy, it was a truly marvellous achievement.”

In terms of personnel alterations, Cork’s notable moves were the absence of defender Ray Carey from the start through injury and the early introduction of Michael Cussen’s towering frame into their attack.

“Ray picked up an injury during the week in training and missed out. That’s unfortunate for him. But we’re hopeful that he might be okay for next week. Then with Michael, there were times it worked for us having him at the edge of the square and other times it didn’t work as well. These are things you try and sometimes they pay off. We just felt that James wasn’t going as well at the time so we made the move.”