Rebels have plenty to prove, admits Kerrigan

As many would have guessed it, Cork’s journey home from Croke Park last Saturday night was as long as it was quiet.

Conor Counihan’s management team will discuss the team’s shortcomings against Dublin in more depth with the panel at training this evening but Paul Kerrigan believes the silence spoke volumes about how serious the players were taking the defeat.

“Fellas knew themselves,” he says. “We were comprehensively beaten and that rarely happens to us at this stage so that was disappointing.

“Dublin were sharper to their breaks and probably looked like they had more football done. They seemed to be a lot more tuned into it and we had no answer to them once they got going.

“They picked up that kind of momentum you can get at home and we couldn’t keep it back. It’s just disappointing. Up front, we weren’t clinical enough and at the other end conceding 1-18 isn’t going to win you any game.”

Kerrigan points out experimentation can often colour results if not performances but he made no excuses for what happened on Saturday.

The ball into the full-forward, for one, wasn’t of sufficient quality. Attacks weren’t quick enough either.

“Yeah, from week to week you’re trying things. We haven’t much in the way of football done. We’ve just over a month done, which isn’t a lot and we’re still a work in progress.

“I definitely think our ball was won too slow last weekend and there wasn’t good enough quality ball going in if you compare it to what Bernard Brogan and others were getting. That’s something we have to improve on, not from last week but last year as well.”

Saturday’s visit of Kildare, the team they hockeyed in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final, provides the reigning Division One champions with a quick opportunity to make amends.

Kerrigan sees it as a big game considering a defeat would mean they enter the stretch of four games in March without a point.

“Every game in Division One is going to be a tough game this year. We knew we were disappointing to watch and we were disappointed ourselves after the game against Dublin.

“It’s a big challenge against Kildare and after it we’re facing into a three-week break so we don’t want to have two defeats from two facing into the month of March.”

Kildare will arrive at Páirc Uí Rinn with their tails up having fought off a second-half surge from Donegal to start their top flight campaign with two points. They’ll also be keen to show they have no hang-ups after finishing 13 points behind Cork last August, a game in which Kerrigan scored a deflected goal which beat Kildare goalkeeper Shane Connolly.

“They’ll want to draw a line under that and make their own mark, starting this year. I think they’ll have that out of their heads.

“They have a few new players and Jason Ryan is with them as well. They’ll want to take it to us and will be boosted by last week.”

Aside from watching 20 minutes of their second half in Croke Park, Kerrigan got to see the highlights of their win over Donegal. He expects Kildare to have learned lessons from the game six months ago.

“They haven’t lost any of their fitness or physical strength from last year. They had an over-reliance on maybe Johnny Doyle last year whereas now they have the young fella (Niall) Kelly and Seanie Johnston in the forwards so that might take the burden off him.

“They had a certain way of playing last year and they’ve kind of modified it after we beat them so they’ll probably tighten up at the back and try and catch us on the break and get those key players, the likes of (Emmet) Bolton, Kelly and Doyle, more into play.

“We’re expecting a tough, physical game and they’ll probably be looking forward to coming down and playing under lights again.”