Ephie Fitzgerald won’t pressure Cork’s dual stars on future plans

Cork manager Ephie Fitzgerald remains unsure about the availability of 11-time All-Ireland winners Briege Corkery and Rena Buckley for the coming championship season.

But Fitzgerald, who steered the Leesiders to All-Ireland glory in his first year in charge, isn’t putting any pressure on the dual stars as he prepares for Saturday’s Lidl National League Division 1 semi-final with Dublin.

Cork’s ladies footballers are in action just a day before the camogie team battles it out with Kilkenny for League glory. But just one dual player, Libby Coppinger, will be involved in both games, as Buckley is committing solely to camogie for now, having been named as team captain for the 2017 season.

Fitzgerald says that he will review his panel after the League campaign, but won’t be pushing Buckley and Corkery for answers anytime soon.

He said: “I’ve too much respect for them. They’ll know themselves. Rena’s doing a Masters and she’s captain of the camogie team. She’s under wicked pressure and that’s enough to be getting on with. They just felt they needed a break and they’ll come to their own decisions one way or another.”

Fitzgerald was boosted by the return of 2016 player of the year Bríd Stack and Annie Walsh recently, but he’s also keen to stick with the players who have brought Cork to another League semi-final.

He said: “The girls that have got us this far deserve the opportunity to finish out the League. Saturday will be more championship-style football and obviously, we have to replace some of the older girls if they don’t come back.

“The only way to do that is to give them game time and I’m also of the opinion that you don’t judge anybody on one game, you give them five or six and see if they’re able to make the grade. You just need to be a little bit level-headed in terms of player development.

“We’ve played everybody on the panel and certainly, last year, we didn’t get the opportunity to do so.”