Cork footballers to prep for final promotion push with Algarve training camp

PRISTINE: A Republic of Ireland training session at The Campus in Quinta do Lago. THE Cork footballers return there next week as they bid to secure promotion back to Division 1. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

JOHN Cleary's Cork footballers fly to Portugal next Tuesday for a four-day warm-weather training camp - and the hope is they’ll depart with promotion close to wrapped up.

Cork are again using the two-week break in league action to get away to The Campus at the Quinta Do Lago resort in the Algarve for four days of uninterrupted work.

Next week’s trip is the third year on the bounce that where Cleary’s side have decamped to QDL between Rounds 5 and 6 of the League to log a significant block of warm-weather training. Cork will return home on Saturday, March 7, with Kildare visiting the following Saturday, March 14.

Victory away to Derry this Sunday would mean only score difference could prevent Cork from rejoining the League’s topflight after 10 years away.

A fifth successive Cork win, at Celtic Park, moves Cleary’s side onto 10 points, four clear of Derry, who currently sit on six.

Top of the range facilities at The Campus in Quinta do Lago.

Derry then winning their final two games against Louth and Cavan, and Cork losing theirs to Kildare and Tyrone, would see both finish on 10 points, but with Cork having the head-to-head on the Oak Leaf County, only Meath also finishing on 10 points - they too currently sit on six - would jeopardise Cork’s promotion chances as score difference would then be employed to separate the three. Cork also have the head-to-head on Meath as a result of last Sunday's 1-23 to 1-21 victory.

A three-way tie on 10 points featuring Cork, Meath, and Louth is also a runner, with that scenario requiring Cork and Louth to inflict back-to-back defeats on Derry across Rounds 5 and 6. Louth currently sit on four points and would need to win all three of their remaining matches to reach 10 points.

Monaghan and Roscommon were promoted last year off totals of 10 and nine points respectively. The year previous, and by stark contrast, the promoted pair of Donegal and Armagh recorded 13 and 12-point totals respectively.

Irrespective of how the Derry trip pans out this weekend, Cork’s League record when arriving home from a bout of warm-weather training bodes well for accumulating the necessary points across the final two rounds.

In 2024, they finished their League campaign by winning away to Meath and drawing at home to already promoted Armagh. Last year, they overcame Louth at home before traveling to Cavan and collecting the two points there, as well.

Cleary has previously extolled the importance of getting away to Portugal for a spell of interrupted training.

“When we come to training every night, fellas are running from work and then fellas are watching the clock on the other side because the following morning is coming.

“Over there, you can get quality work done on the field, and it is stuff that you can then come in off the field, go into a room, do your plans, and have a look at the video as to what went right there in the last few matches and what went wrong, have a chat about it, and not be under time constraints that we have to have them running straight back out onto the field again to get the training done.

“Over there, we were using a top-quality field twice a day and had excellent recovery facilities afterwards,” he told the Irish Examiner after the 2024 getaway.