'We had one eye on Killarney. Now we can have two on it' - Cleary's shake-up sparks Rebels 

At half-time in Thurles, the Rebel chief felt his troops were guilty of having their mind on the May 10th decider at Fitzgerald Stadium.

ALL SMILES: Cork Manager John Cleary during the warm-up in Thurles. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

John Cleary had to shake up his Cork team before they stretched away from Tipperary to secure their Munster final return for the first time since 2021.

The Rebel chief felt his troops were guilty of having one eye on that May 10th decider at Fitzgerald Stadium.

This semi-final was tied at 1-7 apiece as late as the 49th minute, but the Reds blitzed their hosts for 3-11 to 0-2 from there to the 67th minute.

“During the week, we had one eye on Killarney. Now we can have two eyes on it,” said Cleary. “We felt coming in that fellas were talking about Killarney without getting this out of the way first. That can be a dangerous thing. That's maybe why we were a bit lax in the first half.

“Fellas thought maybe playing a fourth division team that you were going to stroll through it. We knew in the backroom that wasn't the case. This was their All-Ireland. They were on top of their game. We were a bit flat and that evened it up very quickly.

“At half-time, we just had to say, ‘Lads, unless you bring it up to where they are, you know, we're going to be in a dogfight coming down the home straight here’.

“But, fair play to them, they shook it up in the second half and we got over the line.” 

Cleary will have some injury headaches heading into that Munster final. Half-time substitute Brian Hurley scored three points before limping off. He will be assessed for a potential groin injury.

Under-20 star Dara Sheedy will be “touch and go” for the final. Colm O’Callaghan was sprung from the bench to manage an injury he’s been nursing.

“Colm has played every game and every minute of every game since the start of the season,” said Cleary.

“He was carrying an injury the last couple of weeks. We were just trying to give him a break so that he didn't break down again. He's too valuable if we lost him.

“Halfway through the second half, he was ready to go, and he did very well when he came in.” Reflecting on a first half where Cork failed to score until the 17th minute and edged in 1-5 to 1-4 ahead, Cleary felt his side fell below their usual markers.

“It was a very warm day and there was a nice breeze there, but at times we were second best.

“We found it hard to get our hands on the ball. When we did, we didn't use it to the best of our ability. Our shot selection wasn't up to our high standard. We kept giving the ball back to Tipp.

“Particularly against the breeze, we should have been better at holding on to it, and we weren't.

“We'll have to look back on the first half. We know against the better teams, if we perform like that, they'll be out of sight.” They have two weeks to prepare now before facing titleholders Kerry in their backyard.

“We've got to go to Killarney now, which is great,” said Cleary. “Really looking forward to it. It'll give a measure of where we are.

“We're going down into the home of the All-Ireland champions, and comprehensive champions last year.

“Cork-Kerry rivalry, down in Killarney, where else would we want to be?”