BY SEÁN HOLLAND
CORK minor football manager Micheál O’Sullivan was keen to take the positives from their Munster MFC semi-final win over Clare that has set up a final showdown with Kerry next Monday.
The Rebels defeated the Banner County, 1-13 to 0-8, on Tuesday evening in Páirc Naomh Mhuire, Quilty, as they bounced back from the loss to Kerry the previous week.
‘It's all positive, in fairness. It’s an improvement on Tralee, but we took a lot of confidence from that game too,’ said O’Sullivan.
‘With 16 and 17-year-olds, you wouldn't be quite sure how they're going to react. We did take a lot of confidence out of that performance against Kerry, and we brought that confidence early against Clare. It was important to start well because it can turn into a ferocious battle up there as we've seen before with Cork teams.’
The Rebels raced into a 1-5 to 0-0 lead after ten minutes and that helped set O’Sullivan’s side on their way to a comfortable win and a Munster final meeting with Kerry on Monday, 13th, in Páirc Uí Rinn.
The win also helped book Cork a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, which O’Sullivan was most pleased with.
‘I suppose the big thing about winning up in Clare was that it guarantees us two more games,’ the Cork boss said.
‘We'll have a Munster final next Monday against Kerry, which is a huge game for all these lads and something to look forward to. Then on top of it, you have an All-Ireland quarter-final to look forward to at the start of June. We’ll be going all out on Monday. We’ll try to get our ducks in a row now, then we can start planning for Páirc Uí Rinn.’
Having only scored three points from play against Kerry in their first outing, eventually losing 0-12 to 1-7, O’Sullivan was pleased with the development of his players, especially in the scoring ranks where they racked up 1-10 from play against Clare.
‘They seem to be developing away nicely. Another positive thing was we managed to get a few more scores from play than what we had coming out of Tralee. That was a worry. We didn't score as much as we'd like from play that night, and we missed quite a few frees below there as well. There's a bit of tidying up to be done at the same time before we go against Kerry on Monday night but we’ll be ready,’ O’Sullivan added.
Scorers:
Cork: D O’Neill 0-6 (1f); D Miskella 1-1; S Whelton 0-2 B Delaney (2f), B O’Shea and H Cogan, 0-1 each.
Clare: C Burke 0-5 (4f); S Fennell, S O’Connell and D Townsend, 0-1 each.
Cork: James O’Flaherty (Douglas); Joe Mouret (Douglas), Aaron Keane (Kinsale), Niall O’Shea (Urhan); Cathal McCarthy (St Colum’s), Cian O’Connor (Ballincollig), Oisin Harrington (Kilmeen); Harry Cogan (Glanmire), Jack Trench (Ballinora); Danny Miskella (Ballincollig), Ben O’Shea (Mallow), Sean Whelton (St James); Humphrey Canty (Newcestown), Ben Delaney (Carrigaline), Dylan O’Neill (Carbery Rangers)
Subs: Cian Cooney (Clyda Rovers) for O’Shea (38), Billy Ryan (Glenville) for Mouret (41), Niall O’Callaghan (Castlehaven) for French (45), Danny O’Donovan (Castlehaven) for Delaney (51), Cian Ahern (Ballincollig) for O’Connor (61).
Clare: E Byrne; A Killeen, C Hill, J Blunnie; S Murphy, A Weaver, L Switzer; D Boyle, C Downes; D Brody, S O’Connell, D Cahill; C Burke, S Fennell, D McMahon
Subs: D Townsend for Cahill (21), C Walsh for Murphy (HT), L Clune for Brody (HT), C Casey for Switzer (49), G Fennell for Downes (62).
Referee: T McGrath (Limerick).
