BY SEÁN HOLLAND
IF Cork footballers endure a slow start against Kerry in the upcoming Munster senior football semi-final, the derby will be over by half time warns Rebels boss John Cleary.
The Castlehaven man watched his side fail to spark in the first half of their quarter-final win against Limerick last weekend, and even trailed at the break, 0-7 to 0-6, against a team relegated from Division 3 of the league after losing all seven league games.
Cork picked up the pace in the second half to get the job done, but Cleary accepts they face a far greater challenge in Killarney on Saturday, April 20th.
‘The message will be loud and clear to our lads – if we're standing back and letting Kerry get at it, the game will be over by half-time,’ Cleary admitted, but pointed to last summer’s Sam Maguire group game where Cork pushed Kerry all the way before the Kingdom won 1-14 to 0-15.
‘In fairness, we played them in the park (Páirc Uí Chaoimh) last year and I thought we went toe-to-toe with them for a long period of that game. In the first half, we set the tone and we got stuck in and that'll be the message again, that if we don't get stuck in from the start, Kerry just pull away from teams very easily if you don't do that.’
Given Cork’s poor championship record in Killarney – the Rebels haven’t won there since 1995 – Cleary’s side need to bring the best version of themselves to Fitzgerald Stadium, or there’s the real danger of another bad day at the office across the county bounds. It’s why the Cork boss will drill into his team that they cannot afford another slow start like against Limerick, and a performance he admitted was ‘flat’.
‘A mixed bag, really. I thought we missed our goal chances in the first half. If we had got one or two of them, it might have been a different game. It gave Limerick something to hold on to. In fairness, they kicked three or four excellent long-range points, and it gave them that bit of confidence,’ Cleary said, reflecting on the opening half.
‘After missing three or four goal chances, I wouldn't say it deflated our lads, but it set us back slightly. We got a point before half-time and two or three after half-time with our goal. We started (the second half) very well and looked to be going away from Limerick and then we fell asleep and then we finished well again. Overall, I thought we were a small bit flat.
‘Maybe coming off the high of the league, when you have put in four very good performances together to get ourselves out of a corner. Today we were just a bit flat, but it's hard to be on the ball every day. Look, if I was to take a day that we were a small bit off colour, it might be today.’
He knows Cork can’t afford a repeat in the lion’s den of Fitzgerald Stadium; when the teams last met there Kerry hammered Cork 4-22 to 1-9 in the 2021 Munster final. Cleary also knows that his side needs to be much more clinical in front of goal, having missed several goal chances against Limerick before eventually hitting the back of the net three times in the second half.
‘I'd be a lot more worried if we weren't creating them (goal chances). We work on them, believe it or not, every night in training. Hopefully, someday it will click. All you can say to the lads is to keep creating them,’ Cleary said.
‘We had gotten better there in the league matches of late, but it was the trend that we had last year, particularly in the league and early on this year, and it did come back to hurt us. And look, all we can do is go back training Wednesday night now and see if we can improve and work on it and hopefully, someday it'll click and more of those goals will go in.’
The Rebels will need to be ruthless in Killarney to stand any chance of an ambush on the locals. The attack needs to click.
‘Well, it certainly does because we're not going to get ten goal chances against Kerry. It's a case of if we get one or two, we've got to take those one or two. That could be the difference. We know it and all we can do is go back to the training field and see if we can improve on it,’ admitted the Cork boss, who also shared the message relayed to his team at half time last weekend when they trailed to Limerick.
‘It was basically to up the work rate. The work rate in the first half wasn't at the required level. Basically, it was to step it up to another level. I think we did step it up in our aggression levels.’ he said.
‘We got a couple of very good turnovers, and we got a very good turnover there for the first goal, which really settled the game. That was the message, really, to push up higher, get more aggressive, try and get a few turnovers, and get ahead and stay ahead.’
Cork will need to bring controlled aggression to Killarney, too.
‘It's going to be a completely different game against Kerry,’ Cleary said.
‘Kerry are one of the best three teams in the country, and on their day they're the best team when they get a run on a team. That's what we'd be hoping to stop and try and impose ourselves and try and play our own game,’ he added, with less than two weeks to put together a plan to stop David Clifford and Co.
‘We had a good bit of work done throughout the league. At the end of the league, I thought it bore fruit. Maybe not so much (against Limerick). Look, Kerry are a different team to be playing than Limerick, where we knew Limerick would be defensive, and who would hold on to the ball for a lot of the time, Kerry are not going to be like that.
‘It's going to be a completely different game, and there'll be times when we'll be under the cosh. That's what we've got to prepare for and see how we can deal with it.’
The minimum Cork requirement is a marked improvement on the display against Limerick.
