Cian Kiely: We found our style and it’s about building on that

Despite a poor league campaign that saw relegation to Division 3, there is still reason for optimism inside the Cork football camp.

That is according to Cian Kiely who says the Rebels can be heartened by how they ended the campaign.

Three losses and a draw in their first four games condemned Ronan McCarthy’s men to the drop despite eye-catching away wins in Thurles and Armagh in the second half of the competition.

Those results mean that despite the disappointing spring, the Rebels will have some bit of momentum ahead of the June 1 Munster semi-final when they will either face off against Liam Kearns’ Tipp or Limerick.

“It brings optimism that we knew the shape and structure that work for us now, we just have to build on that and keep training hard on that going forward,” said Kiely.

“Things didn’t go our way at the start of the year and as the league went on we started to find our feet and we found the shape and structure that suited us.

As the league went on we progressed and got better with each game and coming towards the end of the league we started to show our true colours and we started getting some good results.

“We found our style and it’s about building on that.”

While there is optimism inside the camp, the same can’t be said for in those looking in.

“While the Páirc is one major source of disgruntlement, the performance of the county’s senior footballers is a far more worrying development,” wrote Mike Quirke in these pages in February.

Former county junior football manager Paul McCarthy, speaking to this paper last month, described the relegation to Division 3 as “embarrassing” and “unacceptable”.

Kiely knows only results will silence the critics, but ultimately is hoping that the county gets behind the team ahead of the summer.

“Any time a team loses games there is going to be a negative light shone on them, regardless of the sport it is,” he acknowledged.

“It’s part of sport — it’s not something I agree with and I feel everyone should be buying into this whole thing to promote sport in Cork and push it to the best we can but it’s not something that’s going to be gotten rid of overnight.”

Cian Kiely was speaking at the UCC Sport Star awards where he was one of 13 athletes from the college honoured.