Determined Damien Cahalane has built game on the Rock’s guidance
Damien Cahalane says Cork’s championship opener against Clare has “no relevance” ahead of the sides’ clash in Sunday’s Munster final.
“I knew going into game one against Clare, we knew that we would have to bring our A game to get a performance against them. And even at that, you are still not guaranteed getting a result.
“They have improved in the meantime and we are going to have to go up and beyond what we did the first day. It is a whole new game, a game on its own merits and we just have to try and get a performance the next day.”
Cahalane has noted a significant lift in Clare’s performances since that first game.
“You can see the last couple of games, their confidence. They seem to be very confident in what they are doing, they have one or two fellas coming back from injury which will be a big added bonus to them.
“I think the main thing now is they are playing with confidence. That has been their major improvement.
“Every time you are going out to play them, you know that you are going to be at your best to beat them. And that is what we have to do.
“We don’t concentrate too much on the opposition anyway. All we can do is concentrate on our game and give a good account of ourselves, that is what we are trying to do.”
Last year Clare conceded Cork puck-outs to Cahalane, who caused damage in possession.
“You prepare in training for every possibility. Whether it was Waterford the last day or Limerick the game before that, you are trying to prepare for every single possibility and we did the same last year and that was one of the possibilities that came up in training.
“Thankfully, on the day it worked out for us but who is to say the next day, they could throw something very different at us.”
Cahalane only managed 10 minutes against Wexford in this year’s league but training games sharpened him for the championship: “You find there in training, you are always marking the best of the best. It is a good challenge and you know then going into championship, there is no doubt in your head that you are marking some of the best forwards in the country down here.”
The St Finbarr’s man has opened a new bar in Cork city (“mostly I am managing the place. We have good staff inside, we’ve had good support from the Cork public; a lot of people don’t like talking about hurling outside of hurling but at the end of the day, I am a sports fan as well so I don’t mind chatting about Cork”) but his focus this week is on Clare and their forward line, players such as John Conlon. Cahalane gives a lot of credit to Diarmuid O’Sullivan, one of last year’s selectors, for sharpening his awareness of a full-back’s duties.
“He’s going well and he is a strong guy. But they could throw anyone in there the next day.
“Hopefully if I get to play, whoever I will be marking, I will be trying to play to best of my ability to limit them.
“Myself and Sully would be fairly close now. He was very good with me in terms of the coaching he did with me over the last few years.
“Definitely, everything that he has worked on with me over the last few years has been carried on this year.
“It was specialised coaching in that position as well which was great. But a lot of it came from confidence too, and that came from management, and when I got a vote of confidence from the Cork public that probably fed into how I was playing afterwards.”
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