Shields: Fans will be back for Mayo clash

IF Michael Shields read the newspapers he might have something to say about what Joe Brolly thinks of Cork but he doesn’t so he’s oblivious to his team being referred to as primitive and “crash, bang, wallop”.

But on the subject of the paltry number of supporters who watched them win in Croke Park, he did have an opinion.

Their numbers couldn’t have been more contrasting to the droves who turned up in Fitzgerald Stadium last month but Shields wasn’t surprised. First thing, it’s something he’s got used to over the years. Second of all, he suspects they were keeping their money for this weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Mayo.

“Look, that’s just the way it is,” shrugged the defender. “Cork fans, to be fair to them, have hurling and football down through the years. It is a lot on the pocket especially in today’s economic times. They can’t go to every game and we’re All-Ireland champions so they might have been expecting us to win, and probably saving up for the next round.”

Shields says the supporters weren’t helped by the late Saturday evening throw-in in Dublin.

“At 6pm it’s hard for families to get up with kids and transport them up and down on a Saturday. A Sunday afternoon, at two or four o’clock, probably would have been more appropriate. But it wasn’t in our hands.”

Widely described as having the best panel in the country, managing to play three more games is a massive test for Cork considering the injuries to Colm O’Neill, Ciarán Sheehan and now Daniel Goulding.

“They are big losses to us,” acknowledged Shields. “We have some good young players there who came in and did well. Barry (O’Driscoll) was unfortunate he had to come off injured as well but Fiachra Lynch and Mark Collins did well so that’s great plusses for us.”

Beating Down was a sure-fire way of getting the Munster final defeat out of their system.

“If you lose the Munster final you can always say that you have a qualifier in three weeks as opposed to a quarter-final in four weeks. You know what the scenario is, you know you’re not out of it.”

As for what happened on Saturday, Shields admits Cork were expecting more of a fight from Down.

“We thought it was going to go to the wire, the last five or 10 minutes maybe. We were hoping to be two or three points ahead and we’d have been happy. Going in at half-time we were five points up whereas last year we were three points down so they were big plusses for us.”