'It's a championship game': Larry Tompkins stresses significance of Cork's promotion decider at Tyrone

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Larry Tompkins has said that Cork’s promotion tilt, away to Tyrone, is a “championship game” that must be won. Pic: Jim Coughlan.

Larry Tompkins has said that Cork’s promotion tilt, away to Tyrone, is a “championship game” that must be won for a number of reasons beyond achieving Division 1 status.

John Cleary’s charges travel to Omagh this weekend knowing that a draw will return the county to the League’s topflight for the first time since 2016.

Deeming Tyrone to be “unsettled” and “off the mark at the moment”, Cork great Tompkins is optimistic that the travelling party can secure the necessary result to deliver promotion.

He also believes Tyrone having so little to play for is another advantage into Cork’s barrow. The unlikely prospect of Malachy O’Rourke’s side dropping from fifth to seventh in the Division 2 table can only come about by Cavan winning away to promotion-chasing Derry, Kildare winning at home to promotion-chasing Louth, and Tyrone falling on Omagh soil, with the latter two results also needing to wipe out the 28 points that Tyrone currently have on Kildare in score difference.

“It's a championship game for Cork, whereas Tyrone know, deep down, they don’t have an awful lot to play for because they’re not going to get relegated, even if Kildare and Cavan do win,” he maintained.

“They look like a team that is just unsettled, There's lots of variation in the team every week. They're not getting the results you would expect them to get. They drew with Kildare in the first game, and I hate to say it, but Kildare are a very average team.

“Looking at Tyrone and Meath last weekend, I know Meath only won by five, but I thought they were much better than them.

“All of these factors are a plus for Cork. I would expect Cork to go up there and hopefully do the business.”

The importance of promotion, according to the 1990 All-Ireland winning captain, centres on regular spring exposure to teams that are “better, quicker, and smarter” than what they’re currently encountering.

Tompkins is keen to add, though, that Cork stand to inherit more than Division 1 clothes should they avoid defeat this Sunday.

“There are a lot of lads in that Cork set-up who wouldn’t be overly experienced, and if they do win or draw, they have a league final to look forward to a week later, presumably against Meath. That's a hell of a game to get in Croke Park going into championship. You couldn’t ask for better championship preparation.

“No matter the quality of coaching they’re getting, John Cleary can’t give his players experience; they’ve got to be out in the cauldron of the real thing. The more often they're in that environment, the better they'll become as players and as a team.

“If Cork can get promotion, get that extra game against Meath at Croke Park where there is silverware at stake, get more experience in the process, and follow on from that with their two opening games in Munster, they’d be in a good place in terms of confidence and belief leading into a Munster final against Kerry because, as we all know, Kerry are probably stronger than they were last year.”

While insisting that missing out on promotion would be a “setback” and how 10 years is “far too long” for a county such as Cork to be below in Division 2, Tompkins pointed to the many positives the current crop will carry from spring into summer, irrespective of Sunday's result.

For him, there is no greater positive than the combined form of Chris Óg Jones and the returning Steven Sherlock. The latter has kicked nine two-pointers - three of them frees - for a spring total of 0-37, while Jones has contributed 3-17 to date, not a million miles off the 5-18 he posted across seven games last spring.

“It's great to see Sherlock back. Not everybody has his ability in relation to what he can do on those two-pointers, which are critical in today’s game.

“Chris Óg has been chipping in with two-pointers too, whereas normally he was an inside guy. I’ve been very impressed with him over the last few years. He’s never injured, he’s always available.

“The worrying part is what they are conceding, and you can’t be conceding 2-19 to a Kildare side who, in my book, are a Division 3 team, and who could have got in for a lot more goals in the second half.”