O’Neill takes lessons on board
“There were positives, but at the same time we went out to win the game and we didn’t do that, so it’s disappointing.
“If you go back to the match itself, we left ourselves with a bit of work to do after half time but we came back well and drew level — it’s just a pity we didn’t kick on at that stage. We left ourselves with that bit too much to do and they had enough in the tank in the last 10 minutes to pull away. There’s an important lesson there for us, though — we all saw how Tipperary went last year when they regrouped after we beat them down the Páirc.
“They did well in the qualifiers so hopefully we can adopt that model and kickstart our season.”
They try that today in Portlaoise. The bookmakers will have Cork down as bankers against Laois, but O’Neill demurs. He didn’t line out against the men in white and blue in a challenge game last month in Dromina but he can see Laois holding some trump card this afternoon.
“You could drill a bit deeper with that challenge game and look at that day a bit closer — it was an awful day, very wet, and they had a fair bit of travelling to get there.
“We were still playing in Cork, obviously, so we had the majority of the home support and fellas would have been familiar with the road up there and so on. The difference Saturday is that it’s exactly the opposite — we’re playing Laois not just in their own county but in their own home venue in Portlaoise.
“A lot of us wouldn’t have played in Portlaoise — I’m sure a few lads might have played there in minor qualifiers and so on — but I’ve never played there. When you don’t have prior experience of a situation then you just have to make sure you prepare well for the game.”
The obvious example recently of a match that didn’t go to script was Galway-Westmeath in the Leinster championship. O’Neill can give you other instances of errors in the form book.
“That’s a fair example, but you can even go back to the league this year and you can see how a lot of games were far more competitive than you would have thought compared to previous years.
“Teams were dropping points in games that in previous years you’d have thought, ‘they’ll definitely win that one’; we’d have thought we’d beat Wexford, for instance.
“On paper you’d have thought Galway would win the Westmeath game handy enough, and would have been out of sight by half time or thereabouts, but that’s not how it worked out. But that’s good for hurling to have new teams coming through. It presents challenges for the other teams, challenges they have to deal with.”
O’Neill has had more immediate challenges in the recent past. He has only just overcome a hamstring injury and is accustomed to the questions.
“A lot of people have asked about my injuries and they’re entitled to ask questions — in the last year I’ve been unlucky enough to pick up a few niggles here and there but I’ve the right people looking after me, Deccie (O’Sullivan) and Dr Con (Murphy) — they’ve spent hours getting me right.
“It was a bit of a risk last weekend playing Midleton in the club championships but my aim was to get through the game — even at 80%— the full game. Still, my hamstring held up fine and I was probably going at a bit more than 80 per cent too. I’m just trying to get as many games and sessions under my belt as possible now.”
In that game he was marking one of Cork’s new stars, Midleton’s Luke O’Farrell. O’Neill’s glad to see the injection of fresh blood.
“There’s a big panel there now and during the league Denis (Walsh) and his selectors were trying players in a lot of different positions. We’ve had lads come in from Fitzgibbon Cup with UCC, CIT and Pa (Cronin) with UL, so there’s a good spread of age and experience there. And the more games those lads get the better.”
One game this afternoon. They’ll hope for more thereafter.
THIS evening’s clash between Cork and Laois in Portlaoise, 3pm) isn’t the first time the sides have met this year.
At the start of May they met in a game to mark the opening of new facilities in Dromina, north Cork, a game the Rebels won 3-18 to 0-13. It’ll be a huge surprise if they don’t win again this evening.
Cork boss Denis Walsh has named a similar side to the one which went down to Tipperary in the Munster championship, Tom Kenny and Bill Cooper replacing the injured Lorcan McLoughlin and Cian McCarthy respectively. Cork supporters will have particular interest in Cooper’s performance — with a long-standing problem winning their own puck-outs, a muscular addition to the red and white half-forward line would be most welcome.
Matching the three goals that Cork bagged in that challenge game would also be welcomed by management, given the early goal chances spurned against Tipperary in Thurles three weeks ago.
For their part Laois were not at their most competitive that evening in north Cork, but they still had the star man in Willie Hyland. The powerful wing-forward chipped in with most of the Laois scores, ending with eight points, four from play, and manager Brendan Fennelly will be keen to get the ball to him.
Fennelly will be keen to see an improvement in his side — they lost to an Antrim outfit which had to play with 14 men for over half-an-hour in their Leinster championship game.
Even allowing for Antrim’s character and strength — the northerners put Dublin out of last year’s championship with a late burst, remember — it was still a hugely disappointing result. Interestingly, during the week Fennelly told local media that he intended getting his team to play with abandon — “to go out and have a right cut” at Cork were his exact words.
While Laois are coming into the game under the radar, it’s hard to see where they will get sufficient scores to beat Cork.
The Leesiders to progress to meet Offaly next weekend.
Cork
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