Still time to rectify things, says Stephen McDonnell

Two defeats back to back in the NHL Division 1A? The heat is on.

“There is extra pressure, that goes without saying. Every time you lose two games, you’re going to be under pressure to win the third one.

“There is that added pressure, but at the end of the day, when you go out onto the field and the ball is thrown in, it’s a game of hurling and you’ll be under pressure regardless, it doesn’t matter if you have three games won.”

He doesn’t make any excuses for the losses to Galway and Waterford.

“I think they were true reflections. We didn’t perform against Galway and that’s as far as that game goes.

“We went out against Waterford and we gave it a good shot, it was kind of a rollercoaster game for us.

“Whereas we might have died off, we didn’t so there were positives to take from it and we’ll try to work on those positives as well as the negatives and bring it to the Dublin game.”

The Glen Rovers man concedes it’s “all about championship,” but adds: “You can’t just turn up and perform in the championship. You need to be performing prior to that and then bring that consistency and performance into championship.

“That’s what we’re focused on, trying to get that. I know it’s only the league and it’s March and all of that stuff, but the positive thing about it is that we do that have time to rectify things.”

He’s not as fit as he’d like to be himself: “I’m getting back to that but, regardless of what fitness and hurling work we’ve done, I just need to concentrate on my efforts. It wasn’t up to scratch against Galway, against Waterford I thought I tried harder and I’m going to try harder for the next game again. I want to be the best player I can be and I want to be like that every year.

“Being captain doesn’t change anything from that point of view. If you played a bad game last year or the year before it’s not concentrated on as much, but if you play a bad game as captain, that’s what’s concentrated on. It’s the added pressure but it is an external thing. You just go back to the basics, try to be the best person and player you can be.”

McDonnell applies the lesson of Glen Rovers’ emotional county title last year to Cork’s situation in 2016. “That was unbelievable, especially when I was being told for years I’d never win one. I always believed I could do it. But believing and doing it are a lot different. When we won, it showed when you work hard you can do anything. We were given no chance, especially after getting hammered by Sars in 2014, everybody remembered that. I think Cork are in a similar situation, nobody is giving us a chance of winning anything.”

That run starts again tomorrow night against Dublin. “You don’t know what to expect,” said McDonnell. “Whoever I go out to mark, my main role will be to get the better of him and everybody else will be trying to do the same so hopefully the result will take care of itself I don’t know what work Dublin have done or what shape they’ll be in, it’s not really my concern. My concern is us, we need to get the best out of ourselves.

“It’s a tough group, that’s the way it is. Players will come on and get a chance,

“Cork aren’t afraid of experimenting. Regardless of the results, we’ll still do the best we can to give everyone a shot.”