Rebels hoping to go one better against Kildare
The Rebels were beaten, after a replay, by Donegal last year but gained some revenge in emphatic fashion last weekend with a superb victory over the Ulster side in Portarlington.
Cork trailed the Paddy McBrearty-inspired northerners on Saturday (0-8 to 0-5) at the break before storming out on the restart to record a 1-13 to 0-8 victory. Central to that comeback was midfielder Gary Farrell while Gearóid Barry, Mark Quinn and Gearóid Finn also impressed. Barry (hip) is an injury doubt for today’s final as is defender Derek Canty (flu). Neither player trained this week but both are expected to be fit.
Cork have a side back-boned by several players who played minor for the county last year and they’ve upwards of seven players involved in this year’s panel.
The midfield pairing of Gary Farrell and Sean Terry O’Sullivan will be key to the Rebels cause this afternoon, while big games will also be sought from Kevin Crowley, Daniel O’Connor and James Casey.
For Kildare, centre-forward Wayne Fitzpatrick is the star operator for the Lilywhites and the man that will command most attention. The Monasterevin youngster kicked 2-7 in the provincial title win while inside forwards Kelvin McNally and Emmet O’Keeffe are potent attackers.
Cork boss Hugh Murphy was delighted with last week’s win but sees room for improvement. He said: “We were happy with the second half display. We cut down on mistakes and took our chances but I if we are to win today we’ll need to up our performance by another 5%.”
Murphy described as ‘phenomenal’ the effort his players had put in to reach this stage. He revealed: “We trained in Mallow and I was having a chat with Sean Terry (O’Sullivan) afterwards. It was 9.10pm and he had a trip of two and a half hours before he got home. We know it’s a big ask for these fellas. Hopefully we can get the reward for it because they’ve all made a phenomenal effort.”
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