Maguire praises Cork’s positive approach
MIDFIELDER Ian Maguire has been confirmed as the permanent captain of the Cork team having deputised for Paul Kerrigan during the league and he marked that with a winning start.
Such an emphatic Cork win hadn’t been expected beforehand but the St Finbarr’s midfielder was pleased that the good work on the training ground translated itself to the championship setting.
“We came up here in a lot of people’s eyes as underdogs and maybe rightfully so,” he said. “Tipperary were pushing for promotion to Division 1 and we came here with a plan, we were trying hard the last couple of weeks. We felt we had our work done and I think we came here and blew the doors open.
“In the first 20 minutes there was a lot of hard hitting going in and a lot of ‘what-ifs’, missed handpasses, maybe a few opportunities. I know personally I had two cinches of points I messed up. Once Colm [O’Neill] got the first goal we really kicked on.”
That Cork tried to stay on the front foot even when Tipp had a spell on top in the second half was very pleasing for Maguire.
“We went through a funny period in the second half, similar to the first half, where it just wasn’t happening in the final third,” he said.
“We were making mistakes and taking it into contact, bad shot selection, but once we got over that we really showed the type of team we are. Ronan has given us a lot of confidence – if you make a mistake, don’t hesitate, go out and do it again. You saw that, a lot of good combination play, quick handpasses off the shoulder, I’d say it was lovely to watch at times. I think we went for it and I think we’re at our best doing that rather than inviting teams on us.”
After a spring which had some promising moments but just as many disappointments, the hope now is that Cork can kick on.
“We had a lot of disappointing performances in the league,” Maguire said, “but, to be fair to Ronan, he was singing off a positive hymnsheet; he said we were working towards the summer. When you make mistakes you can learn from them and get on with it or you can feel sorry for yourself. To be fair, we drove on and what was important, and different from other years, was that we went long with the kick-outs.
“When you go short on a large pitch, you have 15 bodies to try and beat, but if you go long, a couple of flick-ons around the middle and you have a platform to get the likes of Luke or Colm on the ball. I thought that was a good approach, Mark has a monster kick.
“I don’t think we played at our best, and we have other guys to come back. Competition in places for training will breed our best team and we are really looking forward to the Munster final. It’ll be a big occasion and we’re looking for big support and hoping for a big performance against whoever it is.”