Paul Kerrigan: Cork defeat ‘embarrassing’

Cork footballer Paul Kerrigan admits he was embarrassed and disheartened by what he describes as an “horrific” championship exit to Kildare.

Kerrigan is the first member of the Cork camp to comment publicly on last Saturday’s 1-21 to 1-13 All-Ireland qualifier defeat - the county’s most comprehensive championship beating, outside of Munster, since the 2007 All-Ireland final mauling by Kerry.

More disappointing than the final scoreline, says the corner-forward, was the performance - or lack of - churned out by Brian Cuthbert’s charges at Semple Stadium.

“It was embarrassing,” he admitted.

“I didn’t know how much we lost by in the end. I didn’t want to know really. It was fairly horrific.

“We had fairly high hopes of getting to the August Bank Holiday weekend from the start of the year and pushing on from there.

“To exit by the end of July is pretty disheartening. Any time you are knocked out of the championship with Cork, it is particularly raw for a number of weeks.

“You put months and months into it and then it is gone in a flash. It was pretty hard to take the whole thing in.”

Speaking before manager Brian Cuthbert confirmed he wouldn’t seek a second term in charge of the county, Kerrigan was still at a loss to explain the no-show in Thurles.

“I don’t know why it didn’t happen. It is hard to put your finger on it. When we are good, we are very good. When we are not playing, we can be pretty average. We were pretty average for the last 20 minutes against Kerry. We were pretty average for nearly all the game against Kildare.

“There are fine margins when you are not on your game. Right from the start [of the year], we were beaten by Waterford in the McGrath Cup. If you are not up for it, you will pay

“ It was similar to the league final, we were lacking in intensity from the start. Again last Saturday, Kildare took full advantage of us not being up for it.”

A Killarney hangover, perhaps?

“People were asking me that during the week. I don’t think that should be an issue

“Any inter-county player, from a physical perspective, should be able to play two games in the space of eight days. That is why you train.

“Mentally, look, we felt we were favourites to win and rightly so. We didn’t perform and it just didn’t happen. They pulled away just before half-time, just like Dublin did in the league final. We weren’t playing particularly well and should have shut them down a bit. We didn’t and they then took off in the second-half.”

Kerrigan accepts the black card to James Loughrey and the knee injury sustained by Alan O’Connor inside the opening 20 minutes didn’t aid the Rebels’ cause.

“Looking back on it, they were probably our two best players coming out of the Killarney games. They were big leaders to lose.

“Alan [O’Connor] was huge for us this year at midfield and when he went off it definitely gaveKildare hope at midfield.

“After that, I think they really pushed up on our kick-outs and pressurised us. They fed off that really.”

If the Cork GAA public were left with hanging jaws by the extent of the footballers’ capitulation on Saturday evening, they were in a complete state of dismay following the hurlers’ exit 21 hours later.

Kerrigan, however, doesn’t buy into Leeside crisis talk, certainly not as far as the footballers are concerned.

“I try to stay away from that as much as I can. The fact that the hurlers went out a day after us, it kind of gave greater coverage to any problems that were there.

“I don’t think there is a crisis in Cork. It was a bad weekend more than anything. When you have a bad weekend like we did, everything comes into question.

“There is always going to be players there as far as Cork football is concerned. It is just ultra-competitive and if you are not on it on a given day, you’re gone.

“The first day against Kerry we performed exceptionally well and they didn’t perform.

“They didn’t play to their potential and they still managed to get a draw out of it. “It just happens that we didn’tperform at all last weekend and we gotabsolutely destroyed by the end of it.”

Where now from here?

“Whether we like it not, we have to face what happened this year - two heavy defeats in league and championship. Players take huge responsibility of that.

“If you are not prepared to take ownership, you might as well forget about it, you are not going to learn.

“It happened for a reason and we’ll definitely have to sit down at some stage and think about it.”

Looking back on it, they were probably our two best players coming out of the Killarney games. They were big leaders to lose.