'We still need something against Armagh,' says Cork manager John Cleary

Cork's Division 2 status secure but Sam Maguire Cup qualification remains unclear.

Sat, 16 Mar, 2024 - 17:48

John Fogarty,

Cork’s Division 2 status is secure but manager John Cleary feels the team will need something out of the final round game against Armagh to all but ensure entry into the Sam Maguire Cup.

Saturday’s third straight win for Cork pushed them up to fourth spot, which should be enough to make the top 16. Winning next Saturday’s game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh could even help to move them into third.

“I was talking to Colm O’Rourke there and sixth (position) didn’t do them last year and they were out of it, so we still need something out of the last game to be sure to be above sixth,” said Cleary.

“Fifth will probably take you there but until it’s signed, sealed and delivered we won’t take anything for granted. In a funny sort of way, even though there was pressure coming on us today, I felt it was a good thing for this team.

"If we had beaten Cavan we were probably half-safe, coming here maybe and it would be kind of a half challenge match type of thing but the very fact that we had to prepare to win today that’s the one thing that we’re delighted with, that when the pressure came on we were able to respond and hopefully that will stand to this team going forward.”

After conceding a goal to trail by three with 15 minutes of normal time remaining, Cleary was thrilled with his team’s finish in Navan.

“I was thinking to myself on the line when we were three down that we didn’t deserve to be in that position but a lot of it was our own fault because we had some poor turnovers in the attacking side and in fairness Meath came down and punished us and the ultimate was the goal.

“I still felt at that stage we weren’t out of the game if we kept our heads and kept our composure. Because we were hurting them particularly Conor Corbett at full-forward there, he was a menace all day to them.

"In fairness, our two wing-backs Mattie Taylor and Luke Fahy drove on there and drove the side forward particularly midway through the second half. We didn’t panic, we showed the bit of composure.

“We had some close games against Cavan and Louth and we didn’t get over the line and I think we’ve learned a good bit from that. When the game is in the melting pot, the better teams get over the line and see it out and hopefully we’re getting to the stage where we’re doing that now.”

Cork finish with a flourish in Navan to maintain upward momentum

Cleary knows goal conversion rate has to improve, however.

“I think we had, in the league up to today, 20 goal chances and we scored five. That won't do to get up to the next level. We're creating the chances but the opposition had 12 goal chances and scored six. And that's why it was great today to see Conor Corbett (score) when he got his chance today.

“But we had two or three other chances as well and I feel that if this group is to progress, when you are on top, you've got to nail it home. And in fairness we did at the end of the game.

"I think we pushed up on their kick-out very well. We won an awful lot of breaks and took our scores in the end. But up to that we hadn't and that's why it was such a close game in the end, because we didn't take our scores for three quarters of that game.”

Meath manager Colm O’Rourke bemoaned his team’s disappointing finish.

“If the clock stopped after 60 minutes I would have said that was quite a good performance after shipping an early goal and fighting back.

"We had a lot of wides in the first half but I thought we were comfortable going into the last quarter of the game and then at that stage it’s normally a good quarter for us and we have finished strongly but instead of that we became a bit disjointed, disorganised and we committed all sorts of silly mistakes.

“We had trouble getting our kickouts away when Cork pushed up on us and we were a bit tentative instead of going for the kill when we were three up, playing the ball around and not attacking at the sort of pace we had been doing. It came back to bite us a bit.

"And Cork really upped their game at that stage too, so we’ve no complaints, beaten by a better team, we’ll suck it up, get on with it, it’s a young team making plenty of mistakes and it’s just as well it’s not going to have any great significance as far as relegation is concerned.”