Experimentation and promotion aren’t incompatible

FROM the outside, it might seem as if assembling a new team and all of the experimentation that that entails isn’t compatible with a tilt at promotion from Division 2 of the Allianz Football League.

For Cork and new coach Ronan McCarthy, trying to marry those two objectives, and leave the team primed for the Championship, is the aim for the League campaign, but the Douglas man believes that it is possible to combine them.

“I think they go hand in hand,” he says. “Part of our role as a management team is to ask the players, when they go out to play, to be courageous in the way they play and the same thing applies to us.

“We have to be courageous in giving fellas opportunities and also allowing guys to make mistakes and keeping faith in them. What we’re asking of the players, we need to ask of ourselves as well in terms of team selection and management.”

To that end, McCarthy ( below) is keen to ensure that players are not left without the ability to make their own decisions in game situations.

“You have to encourage fellas to play,” he says. “Without listing out the names – and I could give a few – I could list out a lot of players who had debuts at inter-county level, league or championship, that weren’t anything to remember them by but they turned out to be fine players.

“I think people are inclined to write players off very quickly if they play poorly. If you’re developing talent and developing players, you have to have a long-term view of things. Let’s hope we have that.”

In terms of team selection, McCarthy estimates that he will have as full as a squad as possible, bar the Nemo Rangers contingent and Kanturk’s Aidan Walsh, all of whom have All-Ireland club championship commitments.

“We’ll have most people back,” he says. “We might have one or two that the game would come slightly early for them but we won’t be in a bad way in relation to injuries.

“We’ve picked up a couple of niggles in the last few weeks but those lads should all be available.”

The McGrath Cup has already been claimed, but few in Cork would be happy if it was the only silverware to report come the end of the year. McCarthy was pleased with how it was approached and believes that the benefits will become apparent as the spring goes on.

“We used the competition for what it was for,” he says. “We won it, which is great and so on, if we hadn’t won it, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world either.

“We used it obviously to give game-time to guys and to assess fellas that we’ve brought into the panel and from that point of view, and with winning it as well, it was of great benefit to us.”

Another benefit would be to start the league with a win against Tipperary. Given that it’s a home game and Tipp have been troublesome for Cork in recent years, is it a pivotal game despite being so early?

“Maybe pivotal is the wrong word, but it is important to get a good start in the league,” he says. “What happens is that if you lose your first game, it puts huge pressure on the second. Generally, if you lose two then you’re in big trouble.

“In the past, when you had four teams qualifying for the semi-finals in Division 1, losing two games, you could probably recover from it. With the top-two situation, if you lose two games then you need to be fortunate to get back up there.

“I suppose it is important to get a good result, particularly when we’re going away from home the following week. Let’s perform and let’s see where it takes us.”