No complacency as Corbett plays down Dublin’s drubbing

LAR CORBETT has played down the significance of Tipperary’s 25-point defeat of Dublin in a challenge match earlier this week.

Liam Sheedy’s men put five goals past Gary Maguire last Monday in Nenagh and tagged on 25 points in what was an ominous display ahead of their championship opener against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on May 30.

“It was a challenge match and, as challenge matches go, we all know you cannot read too much into them,” said the Thurles forward. “But, you know, it gives us confidence going into the match in two weeks’ time.”

Tipp will enjoy another run out against Niall Rigney’s Laois tomorrow evening before they turn their attentions to the Munster Championship opener and their attempt to record a second win in their great rivals’ back yard in the space of three years.

The reigning Munster champions bridged an 85-year gap at the same venue by defeating Cork with six points to spare in a provincial semi-final back in June of 2008 but Corbett isn’t interested in any subplots.

“The media brought that on. We said, ‘look lads, it’s another Cork-Tipp match, we have to go blind at this’. We didn’t look at the history of it and even if something else comes up next week it is just irrelevant for the players going down there.

“At the end of the day it is another game – whether it is one in-a-row, two in-a-row – no matter what it is it doesn’t really make a difference. You have to go out there and try and best the team that is front of you.

“The important thing is you don’t get complacent. Liam Sheedy and his management team have been very good to get that through to the players, that you have to perform on the day to win it.”

Corbett contributed four points from play in that game two years ago and he pitched in with three more when the sides met again last year and only a goal separated them in Semple Stadium. Tough as both assignments were, Corbett expects round three to be the most arduous of them all against a Cork team that, the league final aside, has enjoyed a productive year in Denis Walsh’s first season in charge.

“You look at Cork, their set-up down there this year has been serious. You just have to look at their achievements on the field. To play well against them in two weeks time is going to be a huge challenge.”

Meanwhile Tipp’s versatile Benny Dunne has been ruled out of the Cork game after breaking a bone in his wrist.

Dunne was replaced at half-time in the Dublin challenge and scans revealed that the Toomevara clubman, sent off in last year’s All-Ireland final, broke the ulna bone in his wrist.

When Tipp beat Cork at Semple Stadium last May, Dunne came off the bench with five minutes remaining and shot two points from play.

As well monitoring the fitness of Corbett, Pat Kerwick is also a worry.

Kerwick hit two early points against Dublin last Monday but came off after 25 minutes with a recurrence of a troublesome groin injury.

Tipperary team medics expect that Kerwick will be fit in time to face Cork but Corbett’s condition is understood to be causing some concern.