Ronan McCarthy hails Cork's consistency after stylish win

Cork football manager Ronan McCarthy believes there is more in his team than what they produced in this evening’s demolition job of Laois.

McCarthy’s charges, as reward for their 4-20 to 1-15 win over Laois in a one-sided fourth-round qualifier, join Dublin, Tyrone, and Roscommon in group two of the Super 8s.

First up for Cork in their All-Ireland quarter-final round-robin campaign is a trip to Croke Park next Saturday to take on champions Dublin, with McCarthy of the opinion there is still more to come from his side.

“You come out of Páirc Uí Rinn after round four of the league (Cork failed to win any of their opening four league games) and to be now going up to play Dublin in Croke Park in the Super 8s, this team will absolutely revel in this challenge. It is a huge challenge but it is where they need to be,” said the Cork manager.

“That is 11 games now on the bounce where we have been highly competitive, highly consistent, and, at times, been really, really good. I feel we are a real top team in the making. And I think there is more in us. Easy to say that here tonight, we have the biggest challenge of all next Saturday.”

Reflecting on the 14-point win over Laois, McCarthy delighted in how his players varied their approach when laying siege to the Laois goal.

“Job done, done in a bit of style, as well. We were slow to start the first-half, had a great period then of 20-25 minutes up to half-time, probably could have tacked on more than we did. But we had them in real trouble on their kick-outs, pressed really high up the pitch.

“In the second-half, we got a very early goal. It was 1-12 to 0-7 at that stage and we got a second goal not too long after that. Our running game was sensational at times, yet we mixed it beautifully with diagonal balls in. That is the players making good decisions on the pitch. The other side of that is it is a lot easier to make good decisions on the pitch when you are winning comfortably. It allows players to relax and play like that.

“I’d be disappointed with the last 20 minutes of the game, it got very sloppy. The message we’ve always given the players is that the scoreboard doesn’t matter, you just keep doing the right things, irrespective of if you are winning by five or losing by five. And we didn’t do that. That was disappointing.

“We’re playing Dublin, Tyrone, and Roscommon now and when you are playing those teams, you’ve got to stay at the highest level for 70 minutes. We got away with it today but we can’t drop off again as we did here.”

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