Cadogan: Playing football not affecting my hurling

Cork dual star Eoin Cadogan has rejected suggestions that playing football is affecting his skill levels in hurling. The Douglas clubman pointed out that contrary to general belief, he has played little intercounty football in 2012.

“How many football games have I played this year? I played against Kerry and I played against Clare. I’ve played two hurling games so I’ve played two of each. I don’t know how people can say I’ve been playing more football than hurling, or that playing football is affecting my hurling.

“I think it’s just one of these things that when one person says it then everyone just agrees without looking at the facts.”

This weekend Cadogan lines out for the hurlers against tough opponents in Waterford. “If you look at the Munster final that game was in the melting pot for 60 minutes, until Tipperary did what Tipperary do best — got runners on the ball, got goals, and in a game that tight goals will usually tip it your way. Towards the end they blocked Waterford out well, also.

“From our point of view we’ll be looking at the last five championship outings against Waterford, and on each occasion they’ve come out on the right side. Whether that’s by a small margin or a big score, they’re coming out with the wins.

“Look at the experience they have. In the half-back line the last day they had Tony Browne, Kevin Moran and Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh. Further up the field they have Stephen Molumphy, John Mullane, Seamus Prendergast. All have huge experience.

“They’ve been around the block and they’ll be disappointed not to have won a Munster medal. They’ll have a point to prove next Sunday.”

Cork impressed in a narrow loss to Tipp but haven’t hit those heights since in the qualifiers. “We have a bunch of young players dealing with the disappointment of being beaten by Tipperary, but we went on and did what we had to do,” said Cadogan. “We got over the line against Offaly and Wexford though in saying that we have a lot to improve on.

“In defence we’ve been hugely disappointed with the scores we conceded. The forwards seem to be doing the job but we might be leaking a bit too much altogether.

“That’s something we’ll work on as a group, and try to get it right for the Waterford game. If you give that kind of room to them, with the calibre of player they have, they’ll punish you every time. We’ll have to work hard in that regard.”

The Cork defence leaked a late goal to Wexford which Cadogan described as “unacceptable”. “We don’t need fellas to tell us that that kind of defending is unacceptable. We’re there long enough to know it well ourselves. If you saw an U14 team doing it you’d be pulling the players to one side and telling them to improve.

“There are areas we have to improve on in every line of the field. Unless we do we’ll be in trouble, particularly against Waterford.”