Everything went right for us, says delighted Cork boss Cleary

FEW people heading to Páirc Uí Rinn last night would have been expecting a new record winning margin for a Munster U21 football final, least of all Cork manager John Cleary.

The Castlehaven man admitted afterwards he was surprised at the outcome of the game, acknowledging that it had been a night when everything went right for his team.

“We thought it was going to be a 50-50 game,” he said.

“Luckily we hit the ground running and got two goals in the first eight minutes, that set them back and, in fairness, everything we hit tonight went over the bar.

“Our passing and movement were first class, everything was up to the mark, it was all we could have hoped for, just one of those nights.”

The pair of early goals, from deadly forwards Barry O’Driscoll and Donal Óg Hodnett, who combined for 2-10 between them, were key in the eyes of Cleary.

“They put the daylight between ourselves and Kerry,” he agreed.

“Kerry had a gameplan of bringing a fella out and they didn’t know then whether or not that was going to work and they changed that around and it put doubts in their mind.

“With their kick-outs then they were trying to swing it out to the wing and they didn’t know what they were doing with the kickouts after a while, I think the two goals put the cushion on it and we drove on after that.”

In 2009, Cork began their campaign with a resounding win over Kerry but were unable to replicate that level of performance again, despite going on to win the All-Ireland. With an All-Ireland semi-final coming up against Galway, Cleary knows that it will be vital to maintain high standards.

“Yeah, it’s really important,” he said.

“Galway were very impressive by all accounts in Connacht and it’s only nine days away so we’ll have to get back to brass tacks now.

“No team that comes out of a province at this grade will be a pushover, two years ago and in 2007 we won the All-Irelands, we only won the semi-finals and finals by a point every time, so that’s the level of competition that you’re up against.”

Kerry manager John Kennedy was dignified after admitting he couldn’t put his finger on why his side had lost by so much, but he didn’t wish to detract from Cork. “We were playing second fiddle right from the very start, we were trying to ensure Cork didn’t get a good start but they did, and I think that to say anything else would be to take away from Cork’s performance, they’ll take a lot of stopping.”