VIDEO: Ronan McCarthy: History no barrier for Cork

Asked if the Cork management have prepared for every eventuality in Sunday’s Munster final against Kerry, Ronan McCarthy is refreshingly honest.

“Are we prepared for everything? I can’t say that until the game on Sunday and we see what they bring to the table.

“But, look, you do sit down and try to prepare for every eventuality.

“Certainly in that period last year, the 15 minutes before half-time when they pulled away very quickly, the damage was done there.”

McCarthy doesn’t have much truck with the lack of a Cork win in 20 years in Killarney.

“When I went down to Kerry for my first game against them in 1998, we had won four of the last five times we’d been in Killarney.

“But that fact didn’t make me feel any more confident that we were going to win on the day. And we didn’t. People like to bandy these stats around and ask about the game in ’95 and so on. Look, the game in ’95 or the game in 2002 that we drew have absolutely no relevance at all to what’s going to happen on Sunday against Kerry.

“This record in Killarney is being bandied about a bit, but over 20 years there haven’t been 10 games there because we didn’t play there in ’97 and we didn’t play there in 2003.

“It’s been eight games and we’ve drawn three, and in a lot of them there was a kick of a ball in it. In ’98 even, my first game in Killarney, we got a goal from Alan O’Regan and we led with 12 minutes to go and they went straight up the field and Maurice Fitz scored and they ran out winners from there.”

Even a win on Sunday won’t stop the whispering, he says. “If we win, then the next thing someone will say is, ‘well, you haven’t beaten them in Croke Park yet’. There’s always the next thing that people try to put a negative on.”

McCarthy acknowledges the need for Cork to be more flexible positionally. “We would feel that we need the option of either starting players in positions that maybe you might not have thought of before, or the option in a match to change a player.

“So we’ve looked for the players to be a bit more flexible tactically in the positions that they play. For example, in the modern game there’s not a whole lot of difference between wing-back and wing-forward.

“We played Eoin (Cadogan) out in the middle of the field in a couple of games and he played very well there. We played him at full-back and centre-back too. I would say that’s the sort of flexibility we’re looking for all over the pitch really.”

They’ll need that to hold Kerry in check after the disappointment of last year.

“Look, it did get away. Last year I think it was 0-3 to 0-2 after 12 or 13 minutes. And then it went very quickly to 0-11 to 0-3.

“A lot of people would focus on the Munster final game, but if you look at our league campaign last year we had a lot of games where even when we started well — the Derry game down here in Páirc Uí Rinn I think we were ahead at one stage by 2-9 to 0-4 but only won by a point.

“So even in games that we had started well, we had periods where we went out of the game and conceded a lot in that period of time. Obviously you want to start as well as you can and we’re not going out to not start well, but I suppose the key thing is that when you’re playing a team like Kerry or any of the top teams, they’re going to have a period of dominance in the game or the half.

“The key thing is that we show a bit of resilience and dig in and lower their scoring opportunities and not concede as much in those periods and keep ourselves in the game.” There are positives for Cork. Colm O’Neill has a full spring behind him. Alan O’Connor is back on the panel.

“There’s still more to come from Colm,” says McCarthy. “I still don’t think he’s playing at the peak of his powers. He can only get better as the year goes on and as he gets more championship games under his belt.

“The first thing that Alan gives, and maybe it’s something that is overlooked, is that he gives you something every night he comes into training.

“He trains the way he plays. He bosses people around and he’s really competitive and gives it 110 per cent while he’s there and that lifts everyone.

“People only see the benefit of him in the matches, but we see the benefit of him every night that he comes in.” The Douglas man believes in his players: “The key thing is that the football is there in this group of players. I think the resilience is there and the belief is there. “But it’s fair criticism from people because we failed to perform in three big matches in the last 12 months. So anyone who says to me there’s a question-mark over us, then that’s a valid criticism to make based on the evidence.

“But I would also focus on the evidence of two very good league campaigns over the last couple of years. Going away to the north and winning matches and so on.

“My belief going into this game on Sunday is that there’s something in this group and that we will perform.”