Kerrigan revelling in winter training grind

IT’S been over a year since Paul Kerrigan last had a month free of football, be it action or collective training.

Don’t think for a second that he’s complaining but the fact illustrates how much the 24-year-old has spread himself for club and county.

Even if the inclement weather in December twice denied him a Munster club final, Kerrigan continued to train during the month.

Following the second postponement, Nemo manager Eddie Kirwan let his players off until December 27 while Kerrigan joined the rest of his All-Ireland winning team-mates on their trip to South Africa.

There he “tipped away on a few things” although Kirwan’s delight with the fitness of Kerrigan, Brian O’Regan and Derek Kavanagh on their return suggests it was more of a busman’s holiday for the trio.

Again, you won’t hear Kerrigan cribbing.

He rates the trip as the best he’s been on with Cork. So what if he had to mind himself more than the non-Nemo colleagues. He didn’t have pre-season training to come home to — he had a Munster club final.

“Last year was the first time I didn’t win a senior county championship with Nemo and to be honest the few weeks off was a grand break but then November came around and I was looking at Munster club games on TV and asking myself the ‘what if’s’.

“I would have loved to have played in them. It’s much better to be in it than out of it. We’re in a privileged position. Every club in Cork wants to be where we are so there’s no point complaining.” Nothing has been lost by the postponements either, argues Kerrigan. In fact, he reckons Sunday’s fixture sandwiched between Cork-Kerry games in the McGrath Cup and the National League has only added to the interest in the game.

“The momentum is building again. It was building before Christmas and everybody was looking forward to it but it’s building again because of the Cork-Kerry games these few weeks.

“We had Kerry in the McGrath Cup semi-final last week and we have them in the first round of the league next week so that’s helped the build-up to the final and hopefully we can use it.”

As Kerrigan explained, the 2009 county quarter-final defeat to Carbery was the only occasion he has suffered a loss in the senior championship (he made his debut in the 2005 campaign).

Two Munster titles from four attempts is an acceptable return but they have no All-Ireland title to show for it.

As the most decorated football club in the country, that statistic doesn’t sit particularly well in Trabeg.

Even if Dr Crokes seemed to play mind games before Christmas talking up Nemo’s history, that pedigree is something that is lost on Kerrigan or his team-mates.

“Fellas wouldn’t find it difficult to realise what’s gone before them. We had great teams in the 1990s but then we won it in ‘94 and didn’t win it again until 2000.

“It comes in cycles and we’re in a fortunate position that we’re one of the better teams around at the minute. Rather than living up to them, I think it’s a case of carrying on what they achieved. We’re not an exceptionally big club numbers-wise but we look at ourselves as a big club and want to stay at the top.

“We wouldn’t take much notice of what Crokes are saying about us. There’d be mind games there but we’ve a lot of respect for them too.”