Eyes turn quickly to crucial Cavan clash for Cork boss John Cleary

The Rebels earned a rare -- if early-season -- win in Killarney on Saturday.

Cork manager John Cleary during the McGrath Cup final match at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

THE result won’t flush John Cleary’s face, nor as Jack O’Connor mentioned as gaeilge, deny him a wink of Saturday night sleep. But there was enough about the McGrath Cup final in Killarney to shift it from the irrelevant to interesting column – not least with the opening Allianz League round only a week away.

Both Cork and Kerry managers used the same phraseology to underline the most important takeaway – minutes in the legs for players who were either getting up to speed or looking to accelerate progress.

Kerry’s home tie with Roscommon next Sunday is important for sure, but nowhere as crucial as Cork’s Division 2 opener at home to Cavan. And Cork boss Cleary wasn’t trying to dilute its significance either in Killarney.

“We have been planning for this since October,” the Cork manager explained, “we knew when the fixtures were made what was in front of us, and we were factoring in if we avoided Kerry that we would be coming here to Killarney today. The win is nice but all this is prep for next week – the League is paramount to us.

“I know that Cavan will pose different challenges next week, they came down two years ago and we were expected to beat them, and we couldn’t. Cavan, on their day, can play very good football, they are our sole focus. We got good minutes into the legs here and we found out one or two things. We have a pretty good panel, last year we have 12-13 injuries coming into the League, that’s down to three or four this season, so we have a nice headache in selecting the team and the squad.” 

Added Cleary on Cork’s first ‘competitive’ victory in Killarney in 31 years: “I’d prefer if it was a Championship win in the summer! It wasn’t about laying down a marker, I was talking to the Kerry boys and it was about getting a good competitive game, and we both were happy to get that.

“I was disappointed at half time, we were flat early on with the couple of chances we got we didn’t take them. There were a couple of stupid two point shots and a couple into the goalie’s hands, that’s what we’ve been working on. You don’t really find out until you get into the heat of battle against very good players, which Kerry have. Our players were under pressure making some of those kicks, but this was about getting ready for the League.

“We did think Kerry had a lot of movement up front, but it’s only January and a lot of Kerry’s big guns, you could see thy weren’t quite at the pitch of it yet. We are a bit ahead in training, but the big ones for us are coming in the next couple of weeks. Maybe the League is not so important for Kerry.” 

Kerry boss Jack O’Connor is juggling his options to a far greater degree, but that’s the nature of a post-All-Ireland win – and the exhausting Kerry domestic championship calendar. However, he was pleased with the nice clip of Saturday’s decider.

“A lot of fellas came back late, so it’s tough enough to hit the ground running, we haven’t a lot of sessions done with the group we had out there today. So, minutes into legs and back to match pace was the name of the game today, the second half was a bit livelier, and I think Cork deserved to win the game, they were better than us.” 

On the injury front, O’Connor indicated that Gavin White and Diarmuid O’Connor will miss most of the League, while they remain careful with Paudie Clifford, though the Fossa playmaker is ‘not that far away’.

Added O’Connor: That’s the nature in Kerry, there’s a long club season there and you have to give players time off after that. Some lads have a lot of mileage on the clock and you have to give them extra time off. Diarmuid (O’Connor) had a pretty serious shoulder operation but it went well and he’s progressing on schedule so I’d imagine sometime towards the middle or end of March.”