BY JOHNNY CAROLAN
A CONSIDERABLE improvement is required from Cork in Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final against Dublin in Semple Stadium (1.15pm, live on RTÉ), selector Fergal Condon believes.
The Rebels booked their place in the last six with a 4-25 to 3-19 victory over Offaly at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore on Saturday but the performance was far from their best.
As such strong favourites, it was close to a no-win situation for Cork but, equally, Condon knows that they must tighten up.
‘We scored 4-25, which we’d be happy enough with,’ he said, ‘but there was the concession of a few soft goals. Overall, we were happy to get out of Tullamore but we knew that we’ll have to improve going forward.
‘In the rucks and the loose ball around the place, we needed to get involved a bit more. We spoke about that at half-time and I think we upped it a small bit in the second half. Overall, though, we must improve in that area.
‘It’s about playing as a team and there were times where that connection needed to be better. The players would be disappointed from that point of view as well and it’s something that we’ll look at.
‘We did leave a few scores that we should have taken and maybe a bit more composure and a pass or two too many out in the middle third. It’s good to be going into the game next week with work to be done – we’ve a long way to go yet.’
The nine-point margin at the end had been 15 before Offaly scored a pair of late goals.
‘We’d be disappointed,’ Condon said.
‘As a unit, we didn’t envisage giving away too many goals today so that’s something that we’ll have to work on.
‘The concentration may have dropped towards the end and conceding those goals was sloppy. Our defenders won’t be happy with that. We do know that we can perform better than that and we’ll have to or we’ll be out of the championship.’
Having not played since the win over Tipperary on May 19th, the hope is that the Offaly match will have allowed Cork to get any rustiness out of their system.
‘Remember, we hadn’t played a game for a few weeks and championship hurling is tough,’ Condon said, ‘so the Offaly game was definitely an eye-opener for us in that regard.
‘We definitely can’t take Dublin for granted. They have nothing to lose and they will be very disappointed after the Leinster final defeat against Kilkenny.
‘From our point of view, we have to improve and we have to get things right. Against Offaly, we left the game in the balance for too long.’
Now the focus turns to Dublin, who will be looking to bounce back following their 16-point reversal against Kilkenny. Condon expects a tough test.
‘They have a lot of good hurlers spread out around the pitch and we have to match them and be better than them,’ he said.
‘We still back the talent that we have in our own dressing room and getting our own ship in order will be the priority. Micheál Donoghue will look after Dublin, Pat will look after Cork but we’ll have to improve.’
