Ronan McCarthy keen to move on from suspension saga

Cork boss was handed a 12 week ban for organising a session on Youghal beach in early January.

Cork Manager Ronan McCarthy

Ronan McCarthy has said he "moved on months ago” from the hefty suspension slapped on him by Croke Park for organising a session on Youghal beach in early January.

When asked about his 12-week suspension after Cork’s League defeat to Kildare and whether he agreed with the summation of Down manager Paddy Tally that the pair had been made “scapegoats” by Croke Park, McCarthy replied: “I am not going to talk about that now. I'll have something to say about that at a later stage.

“My focus is on the game today. I think, to be fair, there is a very quick turnaround to the next game and I think people have to realise this was back in January, we have moved on from this months ago. And to some extent, it had no effect on the team at all. It was a personal suspension and is certainly not something I am going to be talking about today.

“Maybe at a later stage when we have some time on our hands we can have a more in-depth discussion on the mechanisms of the GAA disciplinary system.” 

The Cork boss was understandably “disappointed” with their opening League result, honing in on a first-half where Cork failed to translate their dominance onto the scoreboard.

“In a seven-round National League, the first game is always important; in a three-round League, it is even more important. We played great stuff for 20, 25 minutes, but didn't translate it on the scoreboard which was probably the most disappointing part of it. The two quickfire goals put us under pressure. We tried to get back but we left ourselves with a lot to do.

“The big regret is the first-half. We went in behind at half-time and I felt we should have been three or four ahead.” 

Kildare manager Jack O’Connor was pleased with the response of his charges after being slow out of the blocks.

“Cork kicked the first three points and looked very comfortable with the game they were playing. They ran and they had overlaps. So it took us about 15 minutes to get to grips with them. But after that, we started controlling the game and played it on our terms. We were able to get bodies back, turn them over and play on the break.

“We went in at half-time a point up, not having played great in my estimation. Cork were a bit unlucky that they weren't at least level if not ahead at half-time because they missed a fair few chances.

“We said to the boys at half-time that we could play a lot better than that. And in the second-half, we did.

“The pleasing thing for me was there was great fight in the team today. They fought like tigers for every ball, particularly in the tackling. We tackled in twos and threes and showed great desire. We won't get carried away with one day, but it gives us confidence that we're going in the right direction”