Fraggy ready for the real work ahead
Cork’s opener was a home match against Offaly, who are still struggling to reach the heady heights of the 80s and 90s, resulted in an emphatic 11-point win; then came Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds last Saturday evening, another comfortable win over a county in turmoil.
This weekend, however, a blank weekend for all on the National League scene bar Tipperary and Kilkenny, Cork have a juicy challenge match lined up. They will play old rivals Clare – also unbeaten after two games, albeit in Division 2 – in Fermoy on Saturday evening, the official switching-on of the new floodlights in that most progressive club, which should set them up nicely for their biggest match so far this year, a home league game the following Sunday against Kilkenny.
Remember Nowlan Park last year, Cork still not at full strength after the end of the strike, the massive beating inflicted by the merciless Cats on the field, the gleeful jeering by the Kilkenny fans off it?
A little motivation, surely, for Sunday week?
“Yeah, every fella is going to be looking forward to it,” Kieran admits. “That was a bad day for us in Kilkenny; everything that had happened probably took its toll, they were ruthless, took their chances (it ended 4-26 to 0-11). It’s going to be up to us to come back from that, hopefully we can improve on a 27-point defeat!”
The ruthlessness displayed by Kilkenny that fateful Sunday was in marked contrast to the stuttering display by Cork against a similarly weakened Limerick last Saturday evening; Cork did win by 10-points but there was none of the Kilkenny bloodlust of last April, no sense that this was a team out for slaughter.
They never got out of second gear, just coasted home, content – it seemed – to take the points and head back up the N7.
But, claimed Kieran, it was a tough one to get up for: “You’re coming here on a Saturday night, you’re hearing all week you should be hammering Limerick. In fairness to them they put it up to us in the first-half, we were sloppy at times, didn’t move the ball as well as we can do. Second-half we were better, Cian Mac (McCarthy, Sars clubmate) came on, got a goal, that put a bit of daylight between us.”
Mention of Cian – with perhaps only one player (the ever-dependable Ben O’Connor) guaranteed a starting spot, there’s going to be fierce competition for places in the Cork forward sextet over the coming few months.
Michael Cussen (another Sars man) was outstanding on Saturday, finished with 1-5, while Pat Horgan upped his game in the second-half, with subs Aisake O hAilpín and the aforementioned Cian McCarthy also impressing.
Going to be tough then, even for the team captain? “Trying to secure your place, that’s what it comes down to. Denis (Walsh, manager) has told me he can’t guarantee me my place, it’s up to me to earn it, and that’s the only pressure I’m under, to secure my place.
“The competition is there and we saw it in this game (against Limerick), Cian getting the goal, Mark O’Sullivan doing well at centre-forward, Ray Ryan came in for Sean Óg, Conor O’Sullivan to corner-back – there’s competition for places all over the pitch. Cussen, Aisake – realistically we 24 or 25 guys fighting for 15 places, and that hasn’t been the case for a few years. It just shows the development that’s going on, Denis is building up the competition within the panel.”
Neither the Offaly nor the Limerick games will have told the manager a whole lot but Clare this Saturday, Kilkenny on Sunday week – those will be real tests. “Clare are coming down, division 2 – they’ll be looking at this as a step up from what they’re playing in the league.
They’ll come with a full team, make it as close to championship as they can. They’re brimming with confidence after their U-21 All-Ireland win last year, a lot of their lads are playing very well with LIT and NUIG and others, in the Fitzgibbon Cup, so they’re all involved in serious competitive hurling.”
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