McCarthy assembles strong junior side
THAT Cork have gone the last three years without a Munster junior football title constitutes a bit of a famine considering the success they enjoyed at this level in recent times, winning five All-Irelands since 2004.
They last reached the summit in 2013 under the stewardship of Kinsale’s Paul McCarthy, who is hoping to steer the Rebels back to the top in the campaign ahead, which gets underway in a Munster quarter final clash with Waterford at Dungarvan next Saturday.
McCarthy is satisfied that he and his co-mentors – John Geaney (Kilshannig), Stephen Calnan (Nemo Rangers), Pat Mackey (Youghal) and Alan Whelan (Brian Dillons) – have assembled a strong squad, containing several members of the side that was expected to go a long way last year.
They went under by a point against in the Munster final in Tralee, however, in a game that McCarthy contends they should have won.
“We got off to a very bad start, and we were chasing it all the way, but we dominated the last five minutes, and we just ran out of time in the end,” he recalled.
Numbered among the survivors from 2016 are Bart Daly (Newmarket), Diarmuid Colfer (Glanworth), Killian O’Hanlon (Kilshannig), Ryan Harkin (Mallow), Kieran Histon (Cobh), Peter Murphy (Bandon) and goalkeeper Anthony Casey (Kiskeam).
“We feel we have a nice blend of youth and experience, with a few players from the Under 21 team that got to an All-Ireland final last year in the panel, including Ronan O’Toole (Éire Óg), Kieran Histon and Anthony Casey, and we are very happy with our preparations,” McCarthy revealed
“We played a couple of challenge games against Limerick and the London seniors recently, and they were very useful as regards building up a bit of team spirit, so we’re as ready as we can be to get the campaign off to a positive start.”
With players with senior experience in Histon, O’Hanlon, Micheal O’Laoire (Naomh Aban) and Daly, who won an All-Ireland junior medal in 2011, on board it looks a very formidable side on paper, and McCarthy accepts they’ll be strongly fancied to account for Waterford.
“We should get over Waterford, there is no point in pretending otherwise, and if we do advance, we’ll be hoping to strengthen the squad for the next game.
“There are a few players unavailable for one reason or another at the moment who we feel would have a lot to offer us, but we’re just focusing on getting the job done on Saturday, because we don’t know anything about Waterford and we’d be foolish to assume they won’t make a decent fight of it,” said McCarthy.