IT’S THE MUN THAT WE WANT

CORK attacker Conor Lehane insists the Rebels will be going all out for a historic Munster hurling three-in-a-row next year.

The experienced forward dismissed the notion that pushing so hard for provincial success has cost them at the All-ireland semi-final stage.

Cork held the lead in the second half of their last two semis only to cave in against Waterford and Limerick.

Lehane said: “There was enough of a gap between the Munster final and the All-ireland semi-final. It’s very easy to pick out things like that after a loss.

“If you won then it would be, ‘Sure they had more competitive games in Munster, that stood to them’. And we only lost in extra-time, we were very close in fairness.

“I wouldn’t put it down to that being a negative. It was an absolute privilege to win the Munster title.”

Some suggested Limerick’s third place finish in Munster allowed them a low stress run to the All-ireland last eight. Once there,

John

Kiely’s men beat

Kilkenny and rode a wave of momentum to a first All-ireland win since 1973.

But 2013 All-ireland finalist Lehane said winning the Munster title could never be viewed as a negative.

And he dismissed links between Cork’s punishing five-game Munster campaign last summer and the late collapse against Limerick when players complained of running out of gas.

Lehane said: “It was a natural body response from lads really at the end of a tough game. I think they had just given it everything. Even at that, it could have easily gone the other way and we could have won.

“With the amount of saves pulled off in that game, balls going short and just wide, it could have easily gone in our favour. So I think it was down to the game itself and how it developed than players being tired or not fit enough.”

It’ll be exactly 30 years in 2019 since a county completed a Munster three-in-a-row and Lehane said Cork will be targeting a successful title defence.

He added: “You deal with a situation as it lands in front of you and inevitably that means trying to win your next game.

You’re always trying to be as competitive as you can and when we get back to the Championship, nobody will be going out saying, ‘I think we’ll leave off trying to win Munster’.”