Counihan rues controversial Canty red card

CONOR COUNIHAN had the look of a manager drained by kicking every ball with his team yesterday when he faced the press in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday.

After a heartbreaking one-point defeat in extra time, he was frank about one of the game’s turning points, the second-half sending-off of Cork lynchpin Graham Canty, a decision that didn’t meet with Leeside approval, to put it mildly.

“I wouldn’t be too objective about it,” said Counihan. “I’d leave it to people like yourselves to call it, but when you connect with the ball and the man falls, what are we doing? Saying step out of the way?”

Late in extra time Cork supporters were up in arms again when calls for a free which might have levelled the game fell on deaf ears, or deaf ref ears, to be more precise.

The Aghada clubman was clearly unhappy with the officials but didn’t get into specifics.

“I’d probably find it hard to be objective about that,” said Counihan, “But you fellas are around long enough, ye’re well able to interpret that. I leave it to you to call it.

“We had a few issues again last week, but those people have a job to do. All we’re looking for is a bit of consistency.

“You have incidents in games, you always will over 70 minutes – and extra time – and some of those incidents were within our control and some weren’t. And at times we didn’t make good decisions as well.”

Asked if he thought Kerry had learned a little more from last Sunday’s game, Counihan was non-committal.

“I don’t think there was much of a difference. There wasn’t much in it, the break of a ball, a decision here or a decision there. Kerry got that on the day, and that’s sport.

“In the second half we were maybe a little too direct and Kerry defended well.”

The pundits’ view before the game was that Cork needed the win psychologically to gain the upper hand on their long-term rivals.

Counihan had a different take on how severe or not the psychological blow of defeat was yesterday.

“Well, we’ve taken a lot of them, so one more isn’t going to make a huge difference. We now have a back door option that we have to take, and we’ll rally and regroup take that.”

Which brings us to the next day out. Cork will be taking the scenic route, and Counihan didn’t have to look far for teams which have benefited from a long summer.

“It has worked for others in the past. I’ll be honest, it isn’t the route we would have chosen, but maybe there are some advantages to it.”