Ben O'Connor: There are questions asked of our fellas mentally... them fellas aren’t mentally weak at all

Cork manager Ben O'Connor. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Ben O’Connor dismissed any notion that Cork are mentally fragile after producing a nine-point turnaround to defeat Limerick.

The Rebels have moved on from their All-Ireland final woes by coming good in the second half of both victories over Tipp and Limerick.

From the 17th minute onwards, they outscored the league champions, who finished with 14 men, by 2-19 to 1-13.

“There are questions asked of our fellas mentally, that they’re mentally weak. Them fellas aren’t mentally weak at all,” said O’Connor.

“Delighted with them two weeks in a row that when the pressure really came on, they were able to get into the battle.

“Anyone that we play, we’ll outbattle them if it comes to it. We like to play nice hurling, but people have us down as a soft touch – we’re no soft touch.” 

The major concerns from the victory were injuries to full-back Ciarán Joyce and centre-back Robert Downey. The early prognosis appears worse for All-Star Joyce.

“It doesn't look good at the moment, but that's only the boys looking at it themselves,” said O’Connor. “He'll be scanned tomorrow and Rob as well.

“I suppose we got away with it the last day, we had no injury after Tipp, so we’re after picking up two there.

“Hopefully, they’re knocks, but Joycey’s looked a little bit worse than that.” 

Joyce had his knee strapped up as he congratulated his teammates on the field at full-time.

“Knee,” O’Connor confirmed. “It wouldn’t be too bad if it was a hamstring. Until he has the scan, he doesn’t know how bad it is.” 

Cork trailed by two points at half-time, but having fallen seven behind early on, the mood was positive at the break.

“The goal was a huge score for us,” said O’Connor. “Going in at half-time only down two points after not hurling for the first 15 or 16 minutes… we'd have been happy enough with that.

“But again, you just saw the levels that them fellas are able to go to – that's Limerick, that's Cork, them fellas are putting their bodies on the line out there.

“We’re delighted to have two points in the bag. If you told us at the start of the championship, after two games we'd have four points, we'd have been thrilled.

“It wasn't pretty at times, but it's all about two points. It's about getting out of Munster.

“Our first championship match at home for a new backroom team and we’re delighted to get a win. I suppose it was made a small little bit easier by having 14 against 15, but look, we'll take it. Some days, that will go against you.” 

When Limerick got ahead heading for stoppage time, O’Connor felt his troops showed tremendous composure to get over the line.

“Maybe us on the sideline might have panicked a small bit, but the boys inside didn't seem to panic at all. We had a lot of fellas there that put their hand up again when the going got tough.” 

O’Connor said he was having a drink of water so didn’t see Cian Lynch’s red card incident.

“I turned around and just saw Tim (O'Mahony) on the ground. I didn’t see it, but obviously someone inside the four lines saw it.” 

The fortnight before travelling to Waterford will be used to reopen competition for places.

“Some fellas are going to hit a bit of form, some fellas won’t. That’s what the next two weeks are for.

“That’s for the extended panel members to try to force themselves into the 26. That’s what keeps the competition going.

“If you had a game next week, could you leave any fella out that was here today? You probably couldn’t.

“Just to freshen things up for the next couple of weeks. The boys know that as well, so they’ll be all on for training on Tuesday night, mad for road.”