O’Neill ‘touch and go’ for Cats clash
O’Neill suffered the injury in Cork’s Munster final replay defeat against Waterford last month and was forced to watch the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Antrim from the sidelines. O’Neill has been undergoing intensive treatment in the build-up to Sunday’s game and a final decision on his fitness will not be made until later in the week.
“I’ve been doing heavy enough rehab over the last two and a half weeks with our physio Declan O’Sullivan since this injury came about. I haven’t been training or anything, but hopefully Deccie will give me the all clear to go back training. We’ll see how it goes after that, but I’m really just taking it day by day. I’d always hope that there is a chance but it’s a day by day thing at the moment so it’s still touch and go for me.
“I haven’t tested it 100% over 30 or 35 minutes yet, but the rehab has gone well. It’s obviously a massive game for Cork and any player involved in the panel wants to play. Given the tradition and rivalry that’s there between the teams for Cork and Kilkenny games, any Cork player would want to be involved.
“The medical team have been very good the last few weeks in trying to ensure I’m given every chance to play. So hopefully that’s the case. But it’s a fairly serious test on Sunday so you wouldn’t want to be going into a game like that untested.”
That last point is a salient one. Cork need all their players in peak fitness as they approach the mammoth task of trying to stop the Kilkenny hurling juggernaut.
O’Neill does not have extensive experience of facing Brian Cody’s men at senior championship level but his solitary encounter in the 2008 All-Ireland semi-final informed him of the sheer intensity and physicality that they bring to bear.
“I played them at minor and stuff but it was massive step up that day two years ago. In the four or five minutes before half-time in that game, they really stepped it up scoring something like 1-5 very quickly. I suppose that’s been the hallmark of any Kilkenny team over the last few years in that if they get the chance to put you away, they’re ruthless and they take it. Every Kilkenny team brings serious intensity to the game. You’re not really going to be able to even catch a breath.’’
There is a feeling that Cork need to create an astute tactical plan in order to bring about the downfall of this Kilkenny side. O’Neill views it differently, fundamentally believing that hurling is a sport best played off the cuff rather than to any intricate system. As long as Cork place a strong emphasis on the retention of possession, the Bishopstown player thinks they will be on the right track.
“I don’t think we play to any system or anything like that. It’s very much an instinctive game. You can’t go out with a set defined way of playing or anything like that. The one thing that Denis has been preaching heavily over the last year and a half is you have to make the best use of the possession when you have it. That’s his kind of philosophy on things and that’s what we try to implement.”
The popular consensus is that this match will be the next step on Kilkenny’s route to five-in-a-row immortality. O’Neill accepts that Cork face a daunting task but is not entering without hope.
“They’re heavy favourites and they’ve shown before what a serious team they can be. They’re so ruthless in putting teams away. They’ve perfected that over the last few years. They’re heavy favourites and they’ve every right to be given their record. The odds are stacked against us, as not many people are giving us a chance. But we’re still there and we’re at the same stage now as if we’d won the Munster final. That was disappointing but we’ve regrouped since then to defeat Antrim and now we’re in an All-Ireland semi-final. We’re looking forward to this.”
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