Kerrigan: Our hunger told

IF Paul Kerrigan was miffed by the amount of questions coming his way regarding Dublin’s collapse he did a fine job of pretending he wasn’t.

But the concession of their second-half eight-point lead — not the splendour of Cork’s fightback — was the topic du jour as he took questions on a second successive Allianz FL Division 1 title for his team.

Then again, he admitted Cork savoured the manner in which Dublin had been hyped up before the game. Admittedly, it was with reason. They were unbeaten for seven games but in hindsight, it was startling how the All-Ireland champions were handed the underdogs tag so readily.

“It absolutely suited us down to the ground,” said Kerrigan. “We’ve been underdogs for the last six or seven years in every game.

“People have always questioned us. The Dubs were built up again and within their panel I’d say they didn’t want that themselves.

“It just happens when you’re in a Dublin team and it suited us perfectly. Nobody was talking about us and in the end we showed there was more hunger in us than them.”

Having strained his hamstring in the first half (he expects to be out for two to three weeks), Kerrigan watched his team-mates whittle Dublin’s lead point by point before Ciaran Sheehan kicked the winning score.

“To be honest, and I’m not just saying it, there were no negative feelings,” revealed the Nemo man.

“We’ve been in worse situations. We have great self-belief if we’re motoring well and we’re working hard, nobody will live with us.

“We just upped the intensity, the work-rate and I thought we were very sensible with the ball. There was very little ball given away. That was the difference in the end. We’ve lots of fellas who can score there.

“We felt if we got level with them we had a chance. If we got to within a point and they got the next score they might have kicked on but we felt if we got level we had that strength and belief to win.

“From winning the All-Ireland, we got unbelievable confidence to be able to take the game by the scruff of the neck like that. If Dublin had a bit more confidence, they would have kicked on and won it. We just had that experience over them.”

Having rallied at the end to claim a second high-profile Croke Park win over Dublin in seven months, it will be argued Cork have the Indian sign over the Blues. Kerrigan disagrees, though.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a psychological effect. There have been plenty of teams who would have said they had the psychological effect over us and we beat them.

“This was a once-off game, a totally once-off game. Championship is different. Who knows we might meet them again? It would be great to meet them again but championship is way different.”

Kerrigan sees a bit of Dublin in Cork. Lessons will have to be learned the hard way, as they themselves had to, but he dismissed the suggestion the defeat will damage their championship prospects.

“They have that work-rate now, their flashiness is gone. They’re a much better all-round team and they were kicking some fantastic scores.

“Kevin Nolan, their wing-back, kicked a monstrous score. They’re in the top three or four teams in the country and on any given day any of them can beat another so they’re a serious outfit. We’ll have work cut out if we play them again.”

Kerrigan says they’re in a much better position than Mayo, who Cork beat in last year’s league final.

“Dublin have a good squad. In fairness to Pat Gilroy, he’s been like Conor (Counihan). He’s given a lot of fellas a chance in the league.

“They’re always good enough underage so they’ve plenty of talent. They’re in a good position. I don’t think this will set them back any way at all. I think they’re mentally stronger and they’ll go on from here.”

Cork, though, are a more evolved footballing species right now. The convincing way in which they absorbed the losses of Kerrigan, Fintan Goold and John Miskella proved that.

From the team that lost to Kerry in the 2009 All-Ireland final, they are a different class entirely.

“We always felt we had strength in character,” insisted Kerrigan.

“Kerry back then are probably a better team than Dublin are right now. But we just feel the strength in character is there.

“A few young fellas came in when we went off injured in the first half and that’s a great experience for them.

“You can’t beat winning and we showed that there in the last 15 minutes when we were getting strong and Dublin — not that they were wilting — seemed to be going into themselves and lost their way a bit.

“Conor is fantastic in the way he gives fellas a chance. Even Jamie O’Sullivan there, who had a fantastic game, was probably coming into it with a bit of criticism of him but he showed what he was made of.

“The young fellas stood up.”